My question involves a security deposit in the State of: Virginia
I apologize for the lack of brevity, but I wanted to get all the details in, lest I leave out something that may be a factor here.
I signed a 1 year lease agreement in June of 2009 ending May 31, 2010. About May 1, 2010 (I can not recall the actual date, though it was one of the first 2 or 3 days of the month) I entered into a verbal agreement with the landlord to stay until August 31, 2010, as there is a provision in the lease that I can go month to month after the initial year. At the end of August, upon the landlord's request, I entered into another verbal agreement to stay for one more month, as he was unable to find a tennent to start in September. During September, I was informed that he has a tennent to move in October 1, and as such I moved into a friends house until I could find a new apartment.
We did a walk through at the end of September and he OK'd everything. I had the floors cleaned professionally as required by the lease, and there is no damage to walls or appliances. I moved into a new apartment around October 20th after which I sent him a text message (I realize now how juevanille this was, but that was our method of communicating for the key exchange and other setting up the cleaning service date) and left a voice message with my new address.
After hearing no response for 45 days, as per the VRLTA, I once again called and left a message asking that he send the remainder of the deposit with the list of deductions, if any, to my current address. At this time I sent him a letter (mistakenly not certified mail) with a similar statement, requesting the return of the deposit.
It has now been ~70 days since I provided my previous landlord my new address, yet I have had no response from him. Tomorrow I will send a new letter to him via cert. mail requesting that he provide the deposit and itemized list of deductions within 7 calendar days or I will sue him in small claims court.
My questions are as follows:
1. After reading through the lease, it states that I must provide a 30 day written notice prior to vacating, which I never supplied. Is this mistake enough for him to claim my deposit (I feel (not that my feelings have any bearing on this) that this would be unnecessary as I was waiting until he found a new tennent to move)?
2. Should I put the "threat" of sueing him in the letter? Or is it unnecessary and implied?
3. His address is not far from my current residence, I have thought of contacting him in person at his home. Is this a bad idea, and will it look bad in court if I do this?
If you could please advise me on how I should proceed, if I am going along the correct path, I would greatly appreciate it. And thank you ahead of time for your responses.

