What should I do if the landlord is just not fixing things?

Can my landlord specify exactly what my damage deposit covers, then retain money for damages?

• I live in Alberta, Canada and I've been having issues for the last few months with my now ex-landlord. It seems to be a case of "too good to be true". My husband and I moved into a condo we decided to rent from a woman who works in the same company as my husband. When we (we being myself and my landlord's parents, who are involved in everything apparently, and "represent" the daughter since she lives out-of-province) did the initial walk-through of the condo, I was given a list for my damage deposit. They had broken down my entire 800$ damage deposit, turning it into a sort of cleaning fee. For example, everything they expected me to clean had a value to it, so if I didn't steam clean all the carpets in the condo when I moved out, I would have 85$ deducted from my damage deposit. Not a problem, I come from a military family, cleaning is like second nature. Here's where things get volatile. Around the 5 months mark of my one year lease with these people, they asked me to move out, because the parents were doing renovations on their personal home and needed a place to stay. Initially I agreed because they told me there was nothing I could do, and they were legally in the right. I soon discovered they could not do such a thing under the Residential Tenancy Act. When I confronted them about this, and informed them I had no intention of leaving in the middle of my lease, they basically blackmailed me, and told me they would "find other avenues" to have us removed. Like I mentioned before, my husband and the landlady work for the same company (just in different areas). Also, her mother works in Customs/Immigration and I am in the middle of immigrating to Canada as we speak. Terrified that my husband's job could be at risk, or my status could come under speculation, we agreed to move out. Besides, why would we live in a place where we KNOW they are looking for any excuse to kick us out? Obviously, this made things tense between us, the landlady, and the parents. We have moved out as of a few days ago, and I personally cleaned every single thing on the damage deposit list, including fixing even the tiniest dent in the wall (so I didn't miss out on 40 bucks there), dusting every blind (or I would have lost 30 dollars), and renting the steam cleaner, which was nearly as much to rent as the charge to not steam clean! However, now my ex-landlady is having an absolute fit over minor damage to a 6 inch section of a baseboard, three scratches (all less than an inch in size) on the kitchen counter, and a dent in the garage door. I was completely prepared to talk about giving them some of my damage to cover the garage door, but now she's threatening to keep most to all of my damage. When I brought up the cleaning list, she said it meant nothing. I understand I damaged her place, but shouldn't she have to follow what her parents (and I believe herself) set in place for the damage? What do I do here? Is the "damage deposit" cleaning list something they have to adhere to, since they drafted it? Keep in mind, she still has 6 more days to decide on my deposit, but I need an answer ASAP!!

• Answer:

  It depends on what the lease stated. If those were the only things that were stated, then probably not. However, if the lease says anything about the fees being at the landlord's discretion, you're probably screwed. I would offer to go over there and fix them in exchange for receiving the entire deposit back.