Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in Florida

My landlord is trying to withhold my security deposit ($775.00)

My boyfriend and I signed the lease beginning June 1, 2012. We paid a $400.00 non-refundable pet deposit and a refundable $775.00 deposit on the apartment. I moved out in the beginning of August along with the dogs. The landlord agreed to allow the new roommate to move in, under the agreement that he and my boyfriend signed a new lease with their names on it ending May 31st, 2013. (It was basically the same lease, with our initial deposit, just with my name removed, and another name added.) Before he allowed them to sign the new lease, he required my boyfriend and I to pay out of pocket for a tear in the carpet (the dogs did it) ($100.00), which we did just to get a move on with the whole process and to avoid any complications with the landlord. Though I did question the landlord asking him "Aren't small damages like this supposed to be covered by our pet deposit?" I mean, what else could the extra $400.00 be for... Anyways, the lease is now coming to an end. I have not lived there since August 2012, and my boyfriend has not lived there for the past three months though he has been paying the rent every month, on time, in full, instead of ending the lease early. (Most of his stuff was still there--bed, TV, etc. up until this week since the lease officially ends tomorrow.)

Since the end of April/early May both my boyfriend and his roommate started hearing from the landlord telling them he would be doing walk throughs with possible future tenants looking to lease the place. Though I was not there, he apparently brought over 9 people at a time to do a walk through in early may while the roommate was home. Of course he was not happy about some stains on the carpet, and how messy the apartment was. (The roommate who was actually living there at the time was MESSY!). He called my boyfriend to talk to him about the condition of the apartment, and Matt assured him that the apartment will be returned cleaned and with the carpets stain-free and steam cleaned. This past week we moved everything out, hired a cleaning company for the basic stuff (base-boards, oven, stove, fridge, bathroom, etc.) and a carpet cleaner who came and made the carpets look even BETTER than when we initially moved in.

I went there today to grab a few things left behind, and ran into the landlords mother who was unfriendly and greeted me with hostility. She had cleaning supplies with her and some paint to fix the place up. I was friendly and told her I was leaving Matt's key downstairs for her. I get home and get called my boyfriend to talk to him about it. He told me the landlord had left him a message saying we will be charged for any cleaning that needs to be done to the place. Keep in mind that the landlord sent his mother there to clean an ALREADY CLEAN apartment before the official lease term is even over. Am I seriously supposed to be charged for that? Is it even legal?

I guess what I'm getting at is the landlord is acting like we are not going to be seeing ANY of our $775.00 deposit back. GRANTED, there was some damage done while moving out (A small tear in the carpet, a chip in the wall, and a cracked window from moving an over sized couch down a narrow stair case :\ ) which we will take full responsibility for and expect repairs for that to be taken from our deposit. I just find it hard to believe that will cost $775.00 to fix those few things.

The last damage aside from usual wear and tear that was our fault, was a piece of linoleum in the kitchen pantry that our dogs chewed up while they were there. Though I cant imagine adding that to the other damages adding up to $775.00, isn't that what the $400.00 pet security deposit is for. I just think we are going to be SERIOUSLY ripped off if we see nothing at all back from an apartment we paid $1,175.00 in deposits on.

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