I'm going to try and make this as short and understandable as possible, but bare with me here!!
My boyfriend and I began a search for a new apartment at the end of September. We posted on craigslist stating exactly what we were hoping to find...basically, we wanted an apartment where no security deposit was needed or we could pay the security deposit in increments.
We got a quick response from a girl who was desperate to move out of her apartment (though she had 4 mon. left on her lease) because she had been staying with her boyfriend and paying 2 rents wasn't working for her. She said she would forfeit her security dep. over to us and we could come up with a plan to pay her back.
We checked out the apartment while her things were still there and agreed to move in. She gave up her security deposit and we signed a new lease with the property owners stating that the sec. dep. was ours and it would be treated like any regular old security deposit.
Anyways, when we got the keys to the apartment, it was in HORRIBLE condition. She had moved her larger belongings out, but left every single cabinet full of her junk, including huge open bags on cat food spilled out along the shelves. There was gunk and brown stuff covering the lining of every shelf and cabinet. Obviously, we hadn't noticed it before moving in because the drawers were full...
After cleaning up her endless amounts of junk, we had two lg. boxes of her crap in our kitchen, a random door she found in the alley and terrible scratches on every wall and floor. (Again, all of which had been covered with her things before we moved in.)
I tried calling her numerous times, as well as sending emails and leaving messages to no avail. Beyond the fact that we had to clean up her mess, we wanted to come up with some sort of plan to pay her back for the dep. After calling her on a regular basis and being ignored, I stopped trying.
About 1 1/2 later, she calls and is mad because I haven't given her any money. WTF? She's also mad because I didn't notify her of the apts. mess and ask her to come clean it. Again, WTF? She proceeds to tell me that there was no way she left the apt. so nasty and dirty and that I'm lying. (The landlords did see the mess....)
We've tried to come up with a plan to pay her back and when we told her to come over to pick up on the 1st, she didn't show. She then came on the 5th, demanding that we give her money, though my boyfriend was at work and I was in a rush to leave.
It's gotten to the point where she calls non-stop and comes banging (BANGING) on our door at random times of the day. I've also heard her searching our mailbox (assuming for her old mail, but still...) and blocking my car in so we can't get out.
This situation has become really frustrating and I'm unsure of what to do. The last time I spoke with her, I told her that she was not invited to my home and should she come, I will call the police. I also told her that we'd have someone over to assess the damages and give us a quote on what it would be to fix, a cleaning service to tell us what they would've charged to clean up such a mess as well as our landlord over to give us an idea of what he would typically take out of a security dep. if someone were to have left an apt. in the condition we found it.
Any help here I could use. Should I give her the whole security deposit even though we had to labor for days to clean the apartment and that we'll probably be charged for the scratches on the walls and floors? Should this be something I need a lawyer for?

