If you insist on going down the road, then you're looking at it from the wrong angle. Don't ask for $25 from a deposit which hasn't been returned yet, make it a demand for constructive eviction (the lockout) AND an unreturned deposit if he chooses to wrongfully deduct. You'll need to look up your state's laws, but in California each of those carry additional statutory penalties (albeit not big ones).

I still don't think it's worth the time and effort, and be forewarned the commisioner/pro tem/whoever hears small claims cases is going to roll his eyes at this one, but at least this way you're going for more than the price of a AAA game a month after release.

Oh yeah, if i go down that road, i wouldn't file until he gave me back a diminished deposit, and even then i would ask my lawyer cousin to draft a Letter of Intent first to see if that doesn't scare him into action (she does minor stuff for family members pro bono, wrote my parents a Letter of Intent for this lawn care company that pulled the same trick my landlord is trying, assuming non-refusal as an agreement to purchase a service). I looked up the Pennsylvania Bar website about small claims, as well as some other legal tipsites, this isn't something i would choose to do for a while (a few weeks until the deposit, then a few more weeks to write the letter and await his response)

Given the kind of stuff that ends up in small claims, i do agree the magistrate might roll their eyes, but it also can't possibly be the worst thing they've seen if they've spent any time on the bench.

Forget about it. Don't waste your time trying to sue him. I doubt he'd learn a lesson anyway.

Anyway its pretty clear he's dissappointed your sexy ass is moving out.. He's trying everyting* to keep in contact with you..

* till 25 bucks..

In all seriousness, him getting resentful like this is probably because I am moving out, because he's a lazy guy and doesn't want to go through the process again (he's only landlording for another two years tops, once he gets out of med school, he'll drop that house like a hot potato)

Update: the landlord has called and claimed that i broke the toilet in the other bathroom (there was a bathroom attached to a master suite upstairs that i normally didn't use, because it was occupied by a girl and you had to get through her bedroom to get there. Now, the toilet in there has NEVER flushed right from day one, it's always been slow to flush properly, and clogged at the drop of a hat if you took a dump in it (so i only ever used it to pee, and when the girl was still living there, only in dire need, like when the landlord/roommate was taking a shower and i had to go)

First off, he's claiming that me plunging the toilet counts as me making unauthorized repairs. Am i wrong, or is that not complete common sense that plunging the toilet is not any kind of invasive repair that the landlord should be called upon for? If he didn't live there, for instance, would i be required to call him every time a big turd plugged it up? Of course not.

So i now i made the implicit threat explicit. I told him if he takes a cent out of my security deposit, i'll take him to small claims court, and told him to go fuck himself. I'm just exuding anger right now (why this shit has to happen at night, before i go to bed).

But i'm going to win this. I'm going to take him to the mat for the $25, any "toilet repair fees" his lying ass dreams up, and for the night he locked me out because he never bothered to get replacement keys made (except for himself, of course), and was apparently too deaf to hear me ringing the doorbell frantically to be let in (my phone had broken the week before, so my new phone didn't have his cell number, but either way the dereliction was when he changed the lock on the front door and didn't provide me a key and then locked the deadbolt on the back door).

Hate to drag up hackneyed fantasy terms, but this fuckwad's going to rue the day he tried to screw with me.

Taking it nice and slow, though, on the advice of my parents. I'm forwarding them and my lawyer cousin a copy of our correspondence, as well as a copy of the lease, and i'm not talking to him until August 15th, when i have to surrender the keys.

I'm also looking up landlord law for the state of pennsylvania, and preparing a list of tripwires i know he's not going to follow through on, try to get him in as much trouble as i possibly can.

That guy is a jerk. Its good that you're suing him.

Update 2: Because i cursed him out over the phone (when he was calling me and reading me all that bullshit about the toilet yesterday), and my dad called him as well and issued, according to him, "some vague threats" he now feels threatened, and wants me to submit a sworn statement that i will not have a copy of the key made and will never enter his house again without prior written permission.

My thought is to make a counteroffer that i will do so only if he agrees that he will not pursue damages of me in excess of the security deposit (because there's a clause in the lease that basically states i'm screwed if he goes after me for money in court, because i owe his legal fees whether he's in the right or not), otherwise he can stew in the idea that i could be out there, with a key, coming in his house and fucking with things (which, of course, i would never do. I'm not a psychopath, and that would get me thrown in jail in any event). Thus we mutually agree to neutralize the biggest threats we pose to each other (the threat i have against his security, the threat he has for getting me on the hook for a lot of money), and build a station of amity.

Edit: I did make him an offer, against my better judgment (i resolved to not talk to him, but couldn't resist), that i'll give him the two weeks of rent plus a generously-assessed half month of utilities (generous because my liability for utilities would be lower if he went off the actual bills for August, i'd base it off of July, when i was living there, rather than August when i'm not), and in exchange, he gives me my security deposit (sans that generous utilities bit), and swears that he will never pursue me for any financial damages that he feels i might be responsible for.

You are kinda sexy when this manly..

I should hope so.

So he made the "threat" that if i did not return the keys to him by today, then "nothing is negotiable" and that he'll pursue me for any damages he sees fit. I asked my counsel whether i lost anything by giving him the keys and she said no, so i'm giving him the keys today in hope that he'll take me up on my later offer for my security deposit back and a don't-sue agreement.