My question involves landlord-tenant law in the State of: Connecticut
I am a tenant in a multi family dwelling. I was away for approximately 2 days around Jan 25, 2014 and came back to my apartment with no heat. The thermostat read displayed a temperature of 50 degrees alongside my preset temperature of 67 degrees. I also saw a low battery indicator on the thermostat. Upon seeing that, I immediately changed the batteries and called my landlord. My first reaction was to believe that the battery died or malfunctioned and communicated that to my landlord. He went to the basement to check the boiler and said that the heat was kicking in and to let him know if The problem persisted. Lo and behold, I woke up the next morning to no heat again and promptly notified him.
He apparently got a "heating company" out to the house the next morning for repair and they found a frozen pipe. They worked to unfreeze the pipe and my landlord informed me that I would be responsible for the bill (approx $800) because my thermostat battery died, that caused the heat to go off and I could have prevented it. He stated that by not informing him of the low battery in the thermostat I was not using the heating in a "reasonable manner" in accordance with my lease agreement.
I do recognize that I my have used the term "died" when I described the condition of the battery in the verbal conversation in a subsequent text, however I later relayed to him that the thermostat did have a digital reading which means the battery did not actually die. I had been mistaken- I am neither a plumber or in the business of repairing thermostats. I was merely making a conjecture.
He refuses a verbal conversation on this matter and that my options are to file a claim on my renters insurance, pay him directly once he is billed or it can be removed from my security deposit. He says he can't prove the condition of the thermostat and the he can only go off of our communications where I said the "battery died". And he can only go by what the heating company advised him. He also stated that the thermostat "likely died" although he can't prove it.
Note that my lease ends on feb 28 and I will be moving out of this residence at that time.
Should I be responsible and is it legal or ethical for him to deduct the money from my security deposit? I have not yet agreed to pay this bill as I don't want to agree to anything unless I'm confident im responsible.
Thank you

