My question involves landlord-tenant law in the State of: Maryland
My husband and I moved into a rental home a year ago. We signed a lease for an unfurnished home, with the exception of a warming oven.
During the walk though, the landlord asked if we'd like to have the living room set (a couch, love seat, & easy chair). We agreed to take them. He stated that if we decided to keep them, he didn't want them back.
Upon moving in, we discovered that other huge pieces of furniture had been left behind. None of which were listed as inclusions on the lease.
Not wanting to fuss, we moved the excess furniture to the basement. It took up a 1/4 of our basement, half of our shed, etc. We didn't complain.
We then discovered the double-door refrigerator that was there during the walk through had been switched out and in its place was a small fridge w/ no ice maker and a broken door. We DID complain about that and it took 3 months for the original refrigerator to be returned.
During that time, we had no air conditioning for an entire month during the summer because of a faulty system. The home was advertised as having a brand new hvac system, but the repairmen let us know it was well over 10 years old.
We actually had to stay with my parents for 2 weeks because the house reached 90 degrees. We deducted no rent.
The winter was brutal. Half the time we had no heat. The same repairman would come out over and over again. He rigged the system to strictly run on propane, which ended up costing us $1000s of dollars. We deducted no rent.
We sent our 30 days notice via certified mail on March 9 (our lease was set to end on April 30th). The landlord never picked up his certified mail. Delivery attempts were made 3 times. The letter was sent back to us.
We paid our last months rent and moved out early because we haven't had working A/C or heat for months.
I cleaned the home throughly, put down weed killer, swept the garage, and left.
Today my husband got a nasty call from the landlord asking where his couches and chair are. The ones that are not listed on the lease. The ones he said he didn't want back if we took them.
My husband and I disposed of them. Because they were not listed in the lease as an inclusion and because he said not to give them back to him last year, we were thought he may keep some of our deposit if he had to get rid of them.
He wants to keep our security deposit ($2,550) over this.
Is this legal?

