My question involves a security deposit in the State of: Iowa
I was a tenant in a house in Iowa with 5 other people (in two different apartments within the house), and have a situation with the landlord refusing to return the deposit.
After sending my forwarding address to the landlord after the lease terminated on July 23, 2009 and after numerous attempt to contact the landlord, he replied stating that he was speaking with the current tenants (my former roommates) to assess the damages to the house.
I would not mind paying for damages (we did cause some damage to the property), but he is insisting that we pay for things that were not done by us. One such example is he claims we destroyed the carpet and that it must be replaced, when the carpet was worn down (probably from wear and tear) when we moved in. Another example is he claims we need to reimburse him for cleaning the basement (community property, shared by both apartments for laundry purposes) when it was dirty and damaged from flooding before we rented the property, and continued to be damaged after he failed to maintain it or fix the problems. Also, there was a leaking problem from the shower upstairs that caused severe water damage to the bathroom below and wants us to pay for Sheetrock and bathroom repairs caused by the water damage! Keep in mind we complained to him about the leaking and water damage in the bathroom (it was going on for years!), and he never fixed this or cared until AFTER we moved out.
This landlord is notorious in town for letting his properties go and has just paid big fines for providing unfit units to tenants. He is a big landlord in the area with over a hundred properties, and because of this cannot be at each property as tenants move in and out. Now that he has been assessed all these fines, he has suddenly shown a great interest in the condition of his properties.
However, in the previous three years before the fines, the landlord had not been to the property and was not there when we moved into the property to assess the damages prior to our entry. Also, we changed roommates several times over the 3 years, signing a new lease each time, and the landlord never entered the property or checked on its condition. When tenants did leave, he did not inspect the property for damages and my former roommates were all given their full deposit back no questions asked.
To summarize... I have a landlord who is withholding deposit for damages but has not been to the property for years and is just trying to bully us out of money. He has no pictures before we moved in and has not seen the property for several years, even though several tenants have left in the past 2 years resulting in new leases being signed. Months after I have moved out, he contacts me stating he can't give me the deposit back and that he is trying to determine the damages with the current tenants. Even if he was within the 30 days, shouldn't he actually have to know what he is charging me for? It's been months since I moved out, and the only word I have received is that he is trying to determine damages....
From my reading, I've found that the landlord has the burden of proof when there are deposit disputes, correct? If this is the case, it seems like he has no chance as he has no proof of the condition of the house before we moved in or the condition after changing tenants and signing new leases. He has not even replaced the items he says we broke, and therefore cannot provide me with an itemized list of the problems AND the actual costs of fixing them.
If my reasoning seems ok, I plan to file in small claims court but am not sure how much to seek for damages. Can I add court costs? Other damages?

