What are our legal responsibilities to our former landlord in PA?

Okay. So we moved halfway through October last year into subsidized housing because my fiance had been out of work for months and we needed a steady home for our children, not to mention one hadn't arrived yet and it was a 2 bedroom, we needed a 3 bedroom. Now our former landlord is threatening to sue us for 800 dollars, after keeping our security deposit of 450.00.





His charges are as follows:


Cleaning of all walls woodwork and ceilings due to nicotine 500.00. The only room we smoked in was the bathroom, and we scrubbed down the walls, window and ceiling regularly. It was in the lease that we weren't supposed to smoke, but he gave us verbal permission(I know, too late that we shoulda got it in writing, but there's a kicker), and any reasonable amount of dirt on the walls should be covered by normal wear and tear, right?


Removal of damaged wall-paper and repainting the living room 300.00- my fiance put a hole in the one wall with the corner of his gramma's lazy boy. We told him we would fill it in, and repair the wallpaper with a small extra piece, and he told us not to worry about it, because we couldn't be trusted to do it correctly. Now, keep in mind that when he was showing the apartment to the new tenants(after complaining that he owed him extra for having to find new ones), I heard the new tenants DEMAND that he take down all that "hideous blue wallpaper" and paint the room a neutral color. It was waterstained, ripped, and faded when we moved in.


Removal of adhesives and repair of bedroom ceiling 125.00. We had stars on my daughter's ceiling, which we removed when we moved out. There were 3 little pea sized "holes" where the cheap paint he uses came off with the adhesive. So I think 125.00 is a bit excessive, not like he had to repaint or anything, one stroke of a paint brush, problem solved.


Filling and repairing all nail holes- 100.00. What nail holes? He told us when we moved in to use any nails that were already in the walls, and to not use nails for anything, but that using thumbtacks was allowed. So anything I hung up was done with thumbtacks, I never put a single extra hole in the wall bigger than a large needle size.


Back rent plus late fee- 212.50.





So the total he's taking us to court for is 1237.50 - 450.00. But here's that kicker I was referring to- We didn't even have a signed lease at the time we moved out! The man actually stole our paper copy of our lease when he came in to get the rent one day, but we moved in in May 08, and signed a one year lease. We never renewed it, or signed anything else, we told him we were waiting for housing to have an apartment come ready and scraping enough together to pay the rent of 450.00 was hell when we got a total of 393 from the state for cash assistance after my fiance lost his job. The landlord would show up at random times and tell us we had 10 days to be out, he was starting the eviction process. This stressed me out so badly while I was pregnant, I had to be put on medical leave from my job at 3 months along. This apartment was craptastic(I fell down the outside stairs numerous times because there was no outside light), he never gave us keys to the one door at all, the outside light on the other side of the house didn't work either. When we had any form of electronics plugged in, the fuses would blow. The night our furnace went out, with a -15 temp outside, we went and bought little heater fans to stay alive, and they blew the fuses and didn't work anyways. I constantly slid into the stairs inside because there was a tiny piece of blue carpet there, and it wasn't tacked down, so when it was wet, I would slide. And he wouldn't let me put down lineloeum because I wouldn't do it right, but he never would. The upstairs outside screen door broke in Dec of 08, and wasn't fixed by the time we moved, though he was well aware of it needing replaced.


Do we owe this man anything, or do you think the reasonable repairs needed upon our vacation of the premises+ back rent is just right by him keeping the security deposit?





Thanks for reading this! I know it's long but I wanted to explain to the best of my ability.|||THE BEST THING FOR YOU , IS TO LET HIM SUE YOU. TAKE IT before a JUDGE. this man is a ***