My landlord is refusing to return our deposit of 1500 Euros for the following reasons:

- Broken, sunken cushion on the couch
- Hairdye marks on the bathroom door
- A matress is sunken and a spring is broken
- One of the air conditioner remotes is missing

she also mentions the fact that we rented out our room for two months instead of completing the contract (2 out of 4 of us, and the new tenant paid the rent of course) and she had agreed to this with my roommate.

Now I would understand maybe 100 or so Euros for damages, but I absolutely do not agree with not returning the entire deposit.

Do any of you have any advice on how to deal with this? I’m not in Spain anymore but my two roommates are. My landlord can’t be entitled to the entire amount. I’ve already been through a horrible situation with a Spanish landlord and ended up losing nearly 1000 euros. I’m not getting messed with again. I’d appreciate any advice, thank you!

My advice is to instruct a lawyer to send a formal letter claiming the refund of the deposit less the amount you are happy to pay. You can instruct a lawyer to send this letter for 200-300 ?uros and ask him to negotiate on your behalf (for that fee you can not expect long and hard negotiations, but at least a verbal communication threatening with court action could be positive).
If that option fails, you would have to take legal actions, and the cost of that could be on the region of 600 approximately, bearing in mind the amount you are claiming. Please bear in mind that you will not have any guarantee of success with any of these alternatives, but they are the only legal routes you can use apart of negotiating by yourself.

Regards

Javier Moya
MT Legal

jcat.. you say you are no longer in Spain - but 2 of your ex house mates are…
I would get them to go along to the local consumer office (every town has one), where they are extremely helpful.
Did the landlady give an inventory/walk through on signing first contract?  Was a walk through done on hand over/end of tennancy (I have kept photos/records of all items - no matter how small!)...
I am sure your landlady would not want the Hacienda (tax office) to know of her extra income.  Do you really think she is declaring it? (she may be if she is running a business, but I have not heard of many!)... Use this as some extra leverage?
At least if you don’t get your money back you will have the satisfaction of knowing you didn’t get fully done over a second time…