My landlord tried to charge me for 'normal wall wear' after I moved out of my apartment on Elm Street

So I moved out of my place last month, and the landlord hit me with a $350 invoice for 'painting and patching' because the walls had a few tiny nail holes from hanging pictures. I told him that's literally called normal wear and tear, and in Pennsylvania, they can't charge for that if you've lived there more than a year. Has anyone else successfully fought a bogus security deposit deduction like this?

2 comments

2 Comments

taylorb945d ago

Yeah that line about "normal wall wear" is exactly what my landlord tried to pull on me. I put a couple screws in the living room for some shelves and they wanted to keep my whole deposit. What finally worked was I sent them a photo of the lease and highlighted the part about normal wear and tear, then I reminded them that in my state (Oregon) the law says they can't deduct for minor holes after a year. I also cited the specific state law number from a quick google search. They folded and gave me the full deposit back within a week.

phoenixb665d agoMost Upvoted

That reminds me of when my buddy Mike tried to paint his bedroom before moving out, thought he was doing them a favor. Landlord tried to keep his deposit because the color was "too close to white, not the original white". We spent a whole afternoon with paint chips trying to match that stupid wall. In the end he just took them to small claims court and the judge laughed at the landlord. The guy showed up with a color swatch book and the judge asked him if he had a color spectrometer in his pocket. I think some landlords just hope you'll roll over.