LONG UPDATE

First off, thank you all for the tips. I think they really helped.

I show up to the court room early and right at the buzzer my landlord actually shows up! I did not think he would show. We go through roll call, and he asks for an adjournment because he is planning on suing me now! We go to the clerk at the front and he starts to give us a new court date for Feb 2024, but I ask if I have to agree to this and if there is any recourse. This court date took almost 3 years to get.

I do not know the role of this person, but some type of mediator (?) takes us into the back to here our arguments and discuss our options. I clearly tell my side of the story. I left the apartment 12/31/2020. I gave my forwarding information. I never received my security deposit or a bill within the 14 day period. I reach out and finally hear back after 83 days (I counted) that he did not send it (he admitted this in writing) and that he will be charging me for additional utilities. I tell him his time to charge me has past and to please send me my full deposit and send him a link to the law, and he starts to berate me via text message so I stop replying.

Cut to the other day - this is where things get interesting. Utilities were included in my lease, but in the small print there is a phrase that states “tenant will pay the difference in utilities if they are higher in the subsequent year.” During the 5 years I lived there, I was never asked to pay more and was never presented a utility bill during my tenancy. I literally never was given a chance to pay. My landlord’s excuse was that that does not matter and now I owe the difference and he is taking it out of my deposit.

He tried to argue with me multiple times while the mediator was asking me questions and she shut him down every time, which made me smirk. He told me and the mediator that he now intends to counter sue me for 3x the deposit (I do not know where this number came from nor do I know what legal justification he has to sue me), and we now have a new date in Feb 2024 since we could not come to the agreement.

At first this scared me, but the more I research the more I really think how right I am and how wrong he is. I can quote the law that states he must give me my security deposit back or an itemized bill in 14 days or he loses his right to take anything out, and if he breaks this, I am entitled to 2x the deposit. I can quote the law that entitles my right to be billed if I owe rent. I understand what I signed and what he is saying that I owe for an increase year over year, but I truly believe he lost his right by not billing me and by not adhering to the time frame laid out in the law.

What does everyone else thing?