My question involves landlord-tenant law in the State of: Alaska

In early 2011 we moved up to Alaska from the lower 48, we moved in winter, which is usually difficult but more so here, it can be very hard to find open rentals. We had new jobs and needed a place in a hurry, as a result we ended up with a not-so-great apartment and what turned out to be a nightmare of a landlord. Looking back I know there are many times when I should have blown the whistle and gone to someone for help, but I was much too afraid at the time and needed the place to live. I'll try to keep this as brief as I can, however, some issues I have really been concerned about and would like to mention simply so that if someone out there has any ideas they know all of the facts.
The apartment was on craigslist, when we arrived to look at it, it was at least very clean and the person showing it seemed very nice and polite, the rent seemed to be in line with the apartment and like I said, we couldn't find much else on such short notice, so we took it. The landlord asked many questions that I now know are not legal for them to ask, but I didn't know at the time. Personal things that a landlord would never really need to know. The person also mentioned that he didn't rent to unmarried couples because he didn't want to contribute to their "living in sin" under his roof, but in his desperation to get a renter, he would let it go. Red flag. The landlord lived near by and asked that we come and get a rental agreement to sign, we didn't feel it was appropriate but went anyway. While we were there signing, the phone rang and the machine picked up, someone with a very thick russian accent left a message that they were interested in the rental unit, come to find out that our new landlord had more than 15 (not all open at the time of course). He promptly erased it and laughed off the idea as he said that he "didn't rent to russians" sighting reasoning that they steal and were dishonest... Red flag. So now we had an uber religious, racist landlord and it was already too late. We tried to keep personal distance from the landlord, not wanting to have any contact unless there was a repair or once a month when I put rent into the lock box, but he grew more and more invasive with time, trying to make a friendship with us. Trying to keep the peace we always tried to be nice and friendly, but he would drop by for no reason to "hang out" and chat and want to come in and ask more personal information and any resistance from us was met with hostility and threats about how he could find other people who would gladly take the unit... I wish at the time I had known what to do and not let the fear of losing our place keep us from telling someone. As time went on, I began screening calls, if they weren't directly related to our tenancy, I didn't return them, if I thought he might be coming over, I made a point to not be home and slowly but surely we got some distance from the landlord. Within a few months we had heard from the neighbors that the landlord was calling us ungrateful and tacky for declining a friendship with him and how horrible we must be for turning away his invasive "kindness." We worried, but decided to ignore it and move on. Several times that winter we had problems with the hot water heater, all of the tenants in the building suffered numerous weeks of cold showers because our landlord was in Hawaii on vacation and said he would be sure and take care of it when he got back, rather than sending a repairman right away and footing the bill, he decided we could all “live with it” until he could get back and again fix it the cheap way.

A few months before our lease would be running out, work got slow for us both and while I was knocked down to part time, my partner was laid off completely. I immediately went to the landlord and told him the situation and let him know that while we could still keep up on rent for now, it would be tight and we would likely be looking to downsize. He said that he understood and would not want to lose us as renters, since we had been so clean and quiet. He told us to keep him posted on our finances and work situation and things would be fine. Times got hard and I went to him again, telling him that we were going to start looking for a smaller, cheaper place and I wanted to let him know in advance, and if we found something, we would be sure and give 30 days notice. He again said that no he did not want to see this happen and asked instead if we would stay if we could make installments in the rent, pay 1/4 of it each week instead of a lump sum so that it was easier to keep up with. Not wanting to move, I accepted and did not get this arrangement in writing, like a complete fool. It was fine for the first month or so and then the next month it was as if he had forgotten. I made our first weekly installment and he asked why the amount was so small, I said that it was a weekly payment like before and he acted as though he had no clue what I was talking about... In fear of his "memory loss" we started apartment hunting again. During this time we were constantly bombarded by him, coming over and wanting to talk about “our options” he told my partner that if he “had a real job” or if he “was more than just a laborer maybe he could support a family and we wouldn't have had to worry in the first place” he also spends a great deal of time calling us naive, idiots, illiterate, deceitful, irresponsible and disrespectful brats, but we didn’t feel there was anything we could do about it.
By the time our lease was over we were both back to work. We found a great place and went ahead and applied. The owner of the unit promptly called us back and said that although we seemed like nice people, she couldn't ignore what our current landlord had said to her about us. She had been told that we were irresponsible, had trouble holding down jobs, that we were messy and had been terrible renters. She declined our application and said that she had not bothered calling our employers because our landlord had told her that we didn't have jobs and had lied about them anyway... Uh oh. Moments after the call, our current landlord pulled into the driveway and asked what we thought we were doing applying to places behind his back like that. We told him that our lease was up and we were looking for another place and we hadn't told him or given notice because we had not found one or committed to one yet and would let him know as soon as we did. He said this was unacceptable and apologized for "doing what he had to do" and “telling the other landlord about us”. He said that we were stupid for looking elsewhere when we had it so good with him and would never find better. He said that no one else would possibly take us and that he would be forced to tell anyone who called us for a reference that we didn't pay rent on time during previous months, we were irresponsible and no one would have us, so we better just apologize and stay with him. I should have gone to someone immediately, but I couldn't afford an attorney and had no proof of what was going on. The nightmare continued. My partner and I continued to endure abuse from him, constant name calling, personal attacks regarding our career choices and our “working class” status. Finally, last month, we could take no more, I spent my days actually hoping that he would find a crazy reason to evict us just so that we could leave. And then I found a dog... The landlord does not allow dogs and when I found the stray, so skinny that I could see every rib, I thought to myself, I could save a life and possibly get my landlord to finally let me move, if he saw him. I took in the small dog, cleaned it up and kept it. It never went to the bathroom in the house, I have still never heard it bark, it does not shed, nothing. No mess, nothing. I took the dog to work every day and kept it in a kennel at night. Finally, after 4 days one of the neighbors called and ratted me out. Yes! My partner and I received a phone call, he was very diplomatic and didn’t even seem angry. He asked if we had a dog, we said yes and he said we had a choice to either move out or get rid of it. We said that our choice was to move out and that out of respect for his rules, we would have the dog kenneled until we were out, which we did. Both parties were happy. We found a rental unit that we loved and met with the landlord and told them the situation with our current landlord and that because of this, we did not want to use him as a reference. The owner of the unit called instead some of our previous landlords from when we lived in the lower 48 and after getting raved reviews and talking to both of our employers, said that us and our dog were ok to move in. We made numerous calls to our old landlord to talk about this and could never get an answer, finally in our desperation, we text messaged her and said that we had found a place like he asked and would be gone by the first, if this was still an acceptable arrangement. He said yes.
We moved out and left the unit clean and empty. I spoke to him briefly after the move in which he thanked me for cleaning it, acknowledged that there were no damages and that he felt it was fair to take $150 out of the deposit to have the carpets cleaned since we had gotten a dog. I told him that was fine with me if he felt he needed to do so. Two weeks later, we still had not gotten our security deposit back, we called and asked him when we could be expecting it. He laughed at us and said we werent getting it back, I asked why he didn’t notify us within 14 days, in writing as required by law, he said that we were idiots and that he owed us no explanation nor an itemized list of what the money was used for because we had moved on less than 30 days notice. We told him that he verbally agreed with the arrangement that we made because he asked us to leave and gave us the option to do so, if this was a problem he should have brought it up then. He said that was when he thought a renter but it didn’t work out and he decided to keep it the deposit. We told him that this was crazy and he said we should have gotten it in writing, which I know of course and he said that it was not his fault that we were such idiots, he assumed we would just know that we weren’t getting any portion of the deposit back and said that if the 30 days notice rule wasn't enough for us, he could also say that he took it because of the dog. He then hung up.
I wrote him a letter stating that I would like an itemized list of what the security deposit was used for and sighted that he did not ever mention any of these hidden conditions when we were moving out like he needed to. I told him that in previous conversations he had sighted too many personal comments and opinions and that this letter was business only, please leave out any opinions or personal references. He wrote back a letter saying that because we left on fewer than 30 days notice, he was not obligated to tell us that he was keeping the deposit and that there was nothing we could do. The letter also had no mention of a carpet cleaning or anything of the like, it simply went on and on about what bad people we are and how that contributed to his keeping the money. Our rental agreement states that there are no animals allowed in the building, it doesn't list any consequence of the action. It also states at the beginning that the landlord is required by law to either refund the security deposit within 14 days of vacancy or within 14 days send us in writing what the deposit was kept for, it does not say that this is dependent on anything by us. I feel that we were tricked into moving out faster than 30 days and I am tired of personal attacks and the stress of all of this, what I need to know is who can I talk to about this and what can be done? I feel that someone needs to be notified as to what happened regardless of the deposit because he has so many other renters and they could all be suffering the same fate. Any help here?