Landlord Tenant Help! Sending letter of demand?

Question

Ok, so I am a college student and had 2 other roomates. In accordance with our lease we cleaned the carpet and did EVERYTHING ELSE the landlord specified. He repeatedly told us there would be no problem getting the deposit back. However, he refused to do a move out inspection with us because of "scheduling conflicts" Coincidently being naive young people we were screwed out of our deposit AND pro rated rent to which we agreed too with the landlord. In the notice of security deposit he sent that had the damages listed and our check for what little we got back it states that he had to replace the carpet in a bedroom. However, when we moved into the apartment a year ago the NW BR had some carpet issues, but the others were fine. They were perfectly fine when we moved out as well. He has marked the wrong bedroom on this signed paper as the bedroom he had to replace the carpet in. Do we have any standing to get our money back? We honestly cleaned those carpets and there was NOTHING wrong with the bedroom he has stated. Better yet, he let a new tenant move in without replacing it. Which indicates to me he doesn't plan on replacing it. We are sending a letter of demand. Any suggestions on what we should say, or how things could be worded to have more effect.

We really don't need the money, we are lucky in that sense, but we don't want him taking advantage of anymore naive college students!

Answer 1

All you can do is take him to court.  You have lots of gripes, but no actual evidence that he is cheating you.  Still, in small claims court the judge frequently will have to make a judgement as to who is lying and who is telling the truth (they certainly mess up some times but this is their job and they are very good as this).  So, go ahead and take him to small claims court for the deposit.  The judge can pretty much decide to give you everything or nothing but I'll be he gives you something if you are convincing.