Landord won’t return sec deposit

By Deposit deprived

Hi everyone

I recently moved out of a single family home to a home I purchased. I followed my lease to the letter, cleaned everything in the house, left it spotless. Gave 30 day notice. My lease did not require me to clean the carpets or paint. So I didn’t do that. Some history: the house had a problem that the crawl space would flood frequently and require the landlord to come out and fix the sump pump. After a while of doing that he started asking my fiancee to pump out the crawl space. Over the 26 months I was in the home the landlord came to repair different things, so he was in my home 5 to 8 times. One repair he never finished, which I asked about a few times and he said he would get to it. The problem: The landlord must have not read my 30 day notice very carefully because he showed up the day before I was supposed to be out and was pee off because I inconvienced him. While moving that weekend I noticed the crawl space was flooded again. So I told him that day. He left the house that way for over a week after I moved. I know because I bought the house across the street. So a week and a half later I see Total Renovations Truck in driveway ( they solve mold problems, fire damage and water damage) I took pic of truck, so finally after 30 days he sends me a check for 300.00 My deposit was 1550.00. He could not find anything wrong per our lease So he made up damages like 20.00 for a bathtub stopper which wasn’t there to begin with, 75.00 for a dent in the ref, 35.00 for a chip off the stove like I took a chisle and hammer and did that and several other Small things that would be considered normal wear and tear, and to top it off 600.00 for carpet cleaning beacuse HE SAYS it smells like cigarrett smoke ( I don’t smoke). IT SMELLS LIKE MOLD AND WET CARPET AND WET WOOD. So now do I send him a demand letter first or do I just file in small claims. I took pics of the whole house including the water overflowing out of the crawl. Can I sue for the inconvience of having to file suite? I know I can get court cost and atty fees.

BUT I didn’t take pics when I moved in, I only have an inspection report that he never took

HELP

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