If you live in Iowa, here is your state's landlord/tenant code. Actually, they spell things out rather nicely. Not a lot of rambling legalese. 562A.10 of your code addresses no written lease. Basically if you took possession, he took your $, 'without reservation' on either party's part it gives your verbal agreement the same weight as if it had been written. I read through your post twice. Quite a bit jumped out at me. If you pursue it, it might be wise to anticipate some things coming up. Not taking sides, just pointing out observations based on what you said. You're putting heavy emphasis on how the money was handled and saying he doesn't have it based on what a neighbor said. Neighbor is a source of information to you but in the end it's just a neighbor talking and not worth anything more than that. Where the money at is the last duck in the row. First it has to be established you're entitled to any/all of SD back. About the damage. Crumbling ceilings and holes in walls are hard to miss on an initial viewing. You can argue you lived in a dump that was never repaired, but you rented the place in that condition. And you've got to be realistic. Even in the nicest of places walls get dings, that's a nothing issue. Holes would be different. Big difference between hairline crack in ceiling (settling will do that in an old house) to plaster chunks falling down. If it was really bad, unless it was the last place possible for you to rent to get a roof over your head, why did you opt to take it? And if a LL promises to fix something major, it should always be gotten in writing before moving in. I'm not condoning a LL let his place fall apart and be a hazard, nor is it legal. But tenants have options. So taking a unit in that condition, being long-suffering, then trying to use that as leverage later to get SD back doesn't make sense. The faucet deal was not handled well by him, but it was fixed so isn't relevant now. The harassing entry situation. Don't see it. That leak certainly constitutes an emergency entry - no notice required by law. (That type of leak is major tho, not minor.) You said you were in the shower and your daughter was sleeping when you heard loud banging and he rushed in. Is there a chance neither of you heard him knocking at a normal level before that? At that point all he knew was water was going where it shouldn't, needed to be stopped at the source, and he has no idea if anyone is home, not home, ignoring him, didn't hear him, sound asleep. He is allowed to protect the integrity of the structure, hopefully swiftly. (Had you attempted to delay his entry purposely that could really backfire.) As far as ranting, maybe he could have been more diplomatic, but LLs are human, too. You've just purchased a house yourself. What frame of mind would you be in to discover a leak like that a week after your purchase? The landlord is never home either he is an over the road trucker so he is rarely around. This winter, the property was not adequately maintained. The sidewalks were dangerously icy and snow covered. Never once were we told that we needed to take care of any of the snow shoveling. Uh, might be wise to leave that one alone. Did you ask if your rent payment included snow removal service? If only other building occupant is away all the time for work, & your rent didn't specifically include the cost of providing a service like that, it can be reasonable concluded without being told that if it snows, you might have to grab a shovel and toss down some de-icer and clear a path for yourselves and car. I also found some vague things about since we never received keys to the actual dwelling, he technically never surrendered the dwelling to us. But he did surrender possession of the premises to you. You lived there. And as far as a key goes, you're absolutely entitled to one from the start. Why would you live there the entire time without the ability to lock your door? You had the option of requesting (preferably in writing) and if he still failed to comply immediately, call a locksmith, have a new lock installed, keep your keys, give LL a copy key and the bill. It's at a date now where you don't have legal possession or access to the place anymore. You say the place is spotless. But yet you've not cleaned the carpet yet - it's still on your to-do list (tho your tenancy is done). But then you say you shouldn't have to pay for cleaning of the place on move out when you weren't shown the same courtesy when you moved in. I'm confused - spotless or it needs to be cleaned? I didn't read through the laws on it, but if your state law says you need to give 30 days notice, it means 30 days. Your letter only gives 28. If it only requires "a month" you're OK. Also, if he's got 30 days to respond from date of your notice, that gives him till 3/2 because Feb only had 28 days. So maybe it's en route to you now via postal service. Guess next couple days will tell.

Update! I'm very happy to say that we held a meeting with the owner yesterday morning regarding all of the problems listed in my initial post. I presented them with a list of all of the problems and the out of pocket costs for us to take care of them. We came to a written agreement: We will have our carpeting cleaned again, professionally which is going to cost us $125.00 We are going to purchase and re-paint the walls ourselves. They signed the agreement that they would refund us our out of pocket costs for this work, provided that we show them a copy of the receipt for our purchases. They did offer to have their maintainance man come and take care of these problems, but I would rather do this myself, so it will be done my way, and most likely end up nicer. I was also given an apology, and they actually admitted that their maintainance man for the complex did a shoddy job. I'm very very pleased at this outcome. They also put in a new motion sensor light for me in the late afternoon, since I felt our patio light wasn't bright enough. My groundfloor patio is in a darker area of the complex shaded by many trees. I feel relieved. Thank you all for your advice!

Check with a lawyer. Many states have landlord tenant hotlines. I can do this... BUT I always notify the tenant after the first showing what needs to be cleaned and why. Its extreamly hard to rent out messy apartments. I had two identical apartments for rent, on on the main and one directly above on the second floor. The month prior the first person that looked at the other identical apartment on the second floor took it. I got a call requesting an upstairs unit. I explained it was very messy and 2 young guys were living there making it hard to show. He looked at it and then I convinced him to look at the lower unit to get a better feel for space. He rented the lower unit imediatly. I showed the upper unit 12 times and couldn't get any takers. After they moved out and it was clean the first person took it. ( I actually showed it to two people and both parties wanted it) Obviously it was the tenants fault I could not re-rent the unit and they should pay my lost rent IMO. If he never mentioned this to you while he was showing the unit you may have a case.

I think you're probably going to be OK, you seem very conscientious ;) That $300 deposit can't be held against you unless there are damages (or perhaps broken lease/lost rents, depends on your state laws). So cleaning and damages deposits are divided, which is rather nice, I think. There has been no damage done to the apartment, so how well am I expected to clean it? I can only tell you what I like and don't like to see. If I can walk through and it looks presentable as if you were expecting company, I'm pretty content. I'm not your mama nor your maid and what I don't want to see (and what really sets me off when tenants do this to me): personal grunge of any kind anywhere in the bathroom. Disgusting. I want to see porcelain and chrome/glass/mirrors that *sparkle* at me (that can be had in 30 minutes with a bottle of Tilex or X14 and Windex). I don't want to see greasy food splatters from various dinners on the kitchen walls, cobwebs dangling up in the corners, a layer of dust on top the baseboards. I don't want to see threads, dust bunnies and bits of paper and 'stuff' in the corners of hardwood floors or embedded in matted down carpet. I want to look through the window glass and see outside. Not look through splatters of unknown origin, fingerprints, smears, etc. before I can see the world. I don't want to see a layer of scum in the kitchen sink and crumbs all over the counter and I sure don't want to stick to the kitchen floor. I guess you get the idea. I won't fill this up with stories, but I have found all the above and then some as far as cleanliness. I really resent it when a tenant thinks they can swish a rag over a counter and call it a day because I'll be 'cleaning anyway'. It was not like that when they moved in. What I do between tenants is deep, disinfecting, sanitizing type cleaning. The kind of cleaning I would want done were it my own place I was moving into. I will have floors scrubbed and sparkling, fresh clean carpet, washed/painted walls, all bath fixtures waxed and shining, no stale odors of any kind etc. all on my dime. But I don't want my time and efforts hindered by having to get past a tenant's personal layer of crud in order to be able to do my part ;) Again, you seem very conscientious, it's nice you care. You could do as bud suggests and ask them, it never hurts and covering that base will probably get you some brownie points (it would in my book, because few tenants bother to even ask, let alone follow through). Any tenant that pays on time, does no damage and leaves me a clean house gets a written letter of recommendation from me, so they'll always have it for their records ;)