So i'm having a fun rundown as i move away from my lacklustre first landlord to a better house in a better neighborhood. My first landlord was a medical student who owned the house, but he was insanely apathetic and hands-off, but also very stubborn and prone to making arbitrary decisions.

The very reason i ultimately rejected re-leasing with him is because of his plan to hire someone to do regular cleaning and jack my rent by $40/mo for the privelege. I insisted that i didn't really have the money for that, and proposed several alternatives, one of which was that i would help pay for a single cleaning to get the house mess to a stable area, after which we would hash out a plan between the two of us to keep the place clean from that level. He notably rejected it, stating that he wouldn't have the time to do so (too busy with med-school, he claimed. Given how often he was at home and apparently doing nothing, i rather doubt it)

Thus i assumed the matter was tabled until i left, then he could write the cleaning into a new lease with a new tenant.

Then in early July he suddenly said a cleaning lady was coming. I didn't really make mention of it, because he didn't really "ask" me anything, or tell me beforehand that i would be liable for part of the bill.

Come the end of the month, suddenly he says I owe $25 for cleaning fees, and runs some cock and bull story about how i gave verbal consent (even though he rejected the offer, again verbally), and that this is part of the utilities.

The problem with his argument is his own lease, which states quite clearly that utilities are considered water, gas, electric, and internet.

So now we're in a row about the $25. My lease technically isn't up for another two weeks, so i'm just paying half month's rent plus utilities for the prior month. I paid him $65 for my share of utilities, and not the $90 he quoted. He claims that he will withhold the $25 from my security deposit, but the lease also dictates reasons why he can withhold money from the security deposit, which include unpaid utilities, which again, cleaning is not a part of.

So i gave him an ultimatum that he can choose between a friendly solution or an unfriendly one. Friendly solution is that i come by sometime in the next few weeks, weed his small backyard and clean the other bathroom (attached to a master suite that he rented to another tenant, currently unoccupied), along with the extra cleaning that my mother and I did when i vacated the room today (cleaned the room itself, but also the common kitchen, bathroom, front door, and vacuumed hallways), and he lets the $25 go. Unfriendly solution is either he gives me my full deposit back or I take him to small claims court, which would be a purely spiteful move since it costs more to file for small claims court (somewhere in the neighborhood of $50) than the reward in question (though if the magistrate ruled in my favor, he'd have to pay my filing fees).

Is it worth it to sue this guy? Monetarily, no, but he really needs to be taught a lesson about what it means to be a responsible landlord (there were plenty of other things that showed me the guy had no idea what he was doing), and having to show up to court would really stick it to him, with his claims of not having enough time to even clean his own damn house, and also he doesn't own a car so physically getting to court is much easier for me than he.

That was so petty it's not worth the font it's typed with. Sorry Khan.

Let me tell you what I tell about 50% of my clients:

Let it go, dude.

OMG! Stay with him, you are made for each other! You are like the odd couple! Film everything and make a reality TV-show for us!

Should have slept with him.. Most of us solve our problems that way.. Anyway like Judge Judy says: "If it isn't written on paper, there is nothing I can do." Judge Judy would support your case

I would personally take him to court, and I certainly wouldn't offer to clean his yard from what I hear about the situation. Unless there is some other information I am missing, I think you have a strong case. He never explicitly and clearly agreed to your offer (and explicitly refused) and therefore cannot hold you to it. Furthermore, he sounds like a person too caught up into himself that he needs to be taught how to work and deal with people, especially since he is planning to become a doctor. I'm sure you have had other bad experiences with him as well. Hopefully the judge will also reward you compensation for the opportunity cost of your time. But your full security deposit seems like the crucial part of any decision.

Ehh, i know that's the "right" thing to do, but at the same time, if nobody stands up to people like him, they'll just keep getting away with it down the line. A huge pain in the ass (and the loss of even more than the $25 in having to pay my filing fee) would be a lesson he'd remember for the rest of his life.

However, as of the latest e-mail, he's trying to compel me to return my key early on the chance that he gets a new tenant before my lease is up (Aug 15th), and then he'll prorate the rent i've given him.

Presumably this means he's accepted my position (though my counteroffer was that he explicitly agree to return of my full security deposit before i surrender early keys).

We can only hope, as I don't hate the guy, just feel like this is insanely ridiculous and should not be allowed to stand.

Plus i'm already letting a fair bit slide. He locked me out last Saturday, after he had the front lock changed suddenly (without telling me and without giving me a new key), then locked the deadbolt on the back door (i had a key only for the doorknob lock, not the deadbolt), and he owes me $8 for a new plunger, after the old one broke in the course of normal usage (not like i was abusing it or anything). I'm letting enough go already.

I've had a similar case but on a large scale, the lady who bought my previous house came back to us with a list of things she wanted us to pay for including new carpets because apparently they were soaked in dog urine which is ridiculous since my dog never entered the rooms where she claimed the carpets were ruined and there was a bunch of other claims ranging from ridiculous to reasonable totaling a whopping $4,500.

Anyways, we could have let it go to court and would have probably won on all issues but we ended up settling for something around $1,000 and I'm not regretting it because for the two weeks this ordeal went on, I was angry, frustrated, outraged and constantly obsessing about it. Had it gone to small claims court, it would have went on like this for months.

So in your case, $25 is certainly not worth the trouble.

Dr Phil, Judge Judy.. our late night fill up programs..

Nevermind the money, is it really worth the time and the stress? You might feel your case is pretty solid, but there's always a risk when you take something like this to a judge. What if you don't get a favourable judgement? You'll have spent more money and more time and rather than teaching your landlord a lesson, you'll have affirmed his behaviour and perhaps provoked worse.