
Quoting
Mr. Knowitall
Where a landlord does not follow security deposit laws and you end up suing for the return of the deposit, you can ask the court to award you double the amount of the deposit. N.J.S.A. Sec. 46:8-21.1.
"I'm not refunding your deposit because I am renovating the apartment" is not an itemized list of damages.
If you receive a list of damage claims in response to your lawsuit, whether an actual list or part of the landlord's answer to your complaint, you may dispute entries on that list -- whether or not they represent damage you caused, whether or not the claimed cost of repair is reasonable. If you did not receive a list, you can point that fact out to the court and argue that whatever the landlord now may be claiming, you are not responsible to subsidize his renovation efforts. Either way, given his non-compliance with the law and failure to give proper notice of any actual damage claim before concocting a story when sued, you can argue to the court that his late claims of damage should be disregarded.
If rent money from multiple tenants goes through the landlord's bank account each month, if the landlord fails to pay any judgment you win you can likely recover the money by seeking an order of garnishment against the account and serving it on the bank at the time rent payments are being deposited.