Michigan: My land lord is holding back a portion of my deposit?

Question

I sub-leased.

The deposit I payed was $250

My landlord has no photographic evidence, I do.

I don't have the lease agreement nor the agreement I made with the original tennant, which is the only weakspot of my case.

There may be other witnesses on their side and I might be the only person vs. a group.

The Tennant was charged a $100 "cleaning fee" and I was charged a seperate $100 fee for the cleaning.

What I was charged for was the act of the cleaning and the "time lost" from work the landlord said that my "mess" caused them.

Answer 1

first of all, was there a mess for your landlord to clean up?

If there was. then he/she had every right to keep part if not all of the deposit.

If you are a smoker then walls would have to be re-painted due to the yellow stain a cigarette produces...

Answer 2

So, do you have an actual question?

Answer 3

What does your photographic evidence show?  For photographic evidence to be valid, it would need to show the condition before you moved in; it would be nice if it also showed the condition when you moved out.  It would also need to be verifiable somehow; the date from the camera or cell phone might lend some credence if you can't change it.  Another verification would be if you had emailed the picture(s) to someone with some kind of postmark or receipt of some sort.