[MI] - Landlord withholding security deposit
Location: Michigan
A family member rented a home for 2 years. moved out May 31. It is now July 4 (day 34). Despite having been in the house to show it to future tenants before my family member moved out, and telling her that he didn’t see any major issues, the landlord emailed her after move out that they were his “worst move out ever.” he listed a bunch of non-itemized damages including having to “refinish all of the hardwood floors” and replace the garage door, and gave a single dollar total. No receipts or itemizations. My family member knew this was not communicated properly since it was only emailed rather than mailed, and not itemized, so she didn’t reply, waiting for him to mail it instead, and to send an itemized list if he was really serious.
we now know she is supposed to respond to those claims if she disagreed, but did the notification of damages count if it wasn’t properly communicated?
She did provide a forwarding address before they even out.
my family member took a video quickly of the main floor before vacating the premises. they had a dog and cat there but did not leave behind anything disgusting. There was no major damage to the floors. They had already told the LL about a small hole they accidentally knocked in the wall when tossing a box down the basement stairs. Other than that just normal wear and tear.
LL is saying they owe him $8k. Their deposit was $5k.
it is day 34 since move out now. Can LL still sue them for damages up to date 45, or can he not, since he never properly communicated itemized damages? I want my family member to go after their deposit since 30 days have elapsed. They are afraid that the LL has a handyman friend who will write him whatever receipts he wants. But the question now is did he miss his chance and can my family member safely pursue their deposit without fear of some sort of retribution?
Also FWIW he was asking them to stay because he liked them as tenants. they said they couldn’t stay because it had become out of their budget. Now all of a sudden they are the worst tenants ever. He seems like he is just hoping they won’t say anything and he can keep their deposit.