Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in Virginia

We rented an apartment in Virginia for 1.5 years. Our landlord was frequently out of the country and we never received a written report itemizing the existing damages (which I understand was our right under the VRLTA Section 55.248.10:1). Shortly after we moved in we discovered our AC was broken. The unit would run, but would not cool. Eventually the unit was replaced, but the thermostat was never calibrated so it could only be turned off manually. That meant that we spent the summer deciding whether we wanted to either wake up freezing during the middle of the night and turn off the AC at that time, or sweat out the night to try to keep our electric bill down. We told our landlord and the Real Estate Agent he worked with-- who unofficially was helping out even though she was not a formal property manager-- but the AC unit was never calibrated to operate correctly.

After we moved out our landlord claimed that one of the bedroom windows was cracked. We did not crack the window and have no idea when it happened. During our stay we rarely opened the shades in the bedrooms (to help control the bedroom temperatures) so we told the landlord that we were not responsible for the crack and that it must have been the result of one of 3 things: (1) it was cracked when we moved in, (2) it was cracked by that painter who painted after we had vacated to property, or (3) it cracked as a result of the extreme temperature differential from the broken AC during hot summer months. Our landlord's real estate agent said she would attest that the window was not broken when we moved in. Our landlord said it was not possible that the painter or anyone else had cracked it after we moved out. And, as for possibility 3, our landlord said he didn't care how it broke, the crux of the matter was whether it broke during our tenancy-- which he claims it did-- and therefore he took over $200 out of security deposit to pay for it. We're tempted to sue him just as a matter of principal... do we have a case? If we don't sue him is there any other way we can warn others about him or report him to an agency? He lives in Virginia and has at least one other rental property.

Thanks.

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