My question involves landlord-tenant law in the State of: New Jersey
My post is very detailed and so I have given a long and short version below it. I lived in a managed apartment complex in Northern New Jersey for about 3 years (2 years and 11 months to be exact) and here are the details:
I moved in September 2012 and signed a 1 year lease till August 2013. (Rent was $1000/ month and my deposit was 1.5 times rent : $1500). When August 2013 arrived, my long employment situation was dicey, I requested a month to month lease but it was denied and so I signed a new 9 month lease (with an annoying fee) and so my new lease was from September 2013 till May 2014 (9 months). May 2014 comes, I am still employed (yay!!), I forgot about my lease situation and so did the landlord. I still continue living at the apartment and religiously paying my rent on the 1st of every month. Around August 2014, the landlord finally figures out the lease situation and calls me up asking me if I still live in the unit - i politely remind them that they have been cashing my check every month and yes I still live there. They say that some paper work needs to be signed. In that same conversation, I again request them to leave it as it has been the past couple of months and that I will give them 30 days notice before I leave. I however receive in my mail two leases for me to sign : One from September 2013 - August 2014 (overlapping my previous 9 month lease) and the other September 2014 to August 2015. I do not sign or return any of these leases for them to sign because I had told them to leave things as they were and thought they agreed to it but there was obviously confusion from both ends. I continue living there despite not signing any of the leases and I continued to pay my rent. I did not hear back from the landlord or receive any communication about the unsigned or unreturned leases. 10 months later, around mid 2015 my employment situation in NJ suddenly ended and so in June 2015 I gave them 30 days notice that I will be leaving end of July 2015. I did and instead of getting my full deposit ($1500) back, only got back a partial because they deducted $1000 for the month of August 2015 even though I did not live there.
So my question is, can I fight them back for my full deposit because there was no signed lease?
This is the summary in chronological order since I know my post above is very detailed :
1) One year lease signed Sept 2012 till Aug 2013
2) Then 9 month lease signed Sep 2013 till May 2014
3) June 2014 to August 2014 : period of "limbo", no lease signed and no communication from landlord, I am still staying there/paying my rent on time
4) In August 2014 I now receive two leases for me to sign and return : One from Sept 2013 till Aug 2014 and the other from Sept 2014 till Aug 2015. This is following a conversation I had with the landlord when they called. I requested them to leave things as they were : "basically an informal month to month and I would give them due notice before I vacate".
5) I do not sign nor return the leases and continue living there and paying my rent and I get no further communication from the landlord about the unreturned or unsigned leases.
6) 10 months later, in June 2015, I gave them 30 days notice of my intention to vacate in July 2015.
7) I leave end of July 2015. Then when I eventually get my deposit back, I noticed they subtracted 1 month rent for the month of August 2015 even though I did not live in the unit in August 2015.
Do I have a case, can I get my full deposit back from them because there was really no signed lease? How do I go about it, I have now moved to the West Coast?
Thanks.

