Suing landlord for security deposit (Kansas)
Hello - my boyfriend and I moved out of our old house we were renting and into an apartment June 2026. It's been an emotional rollercoaster this past month trying to settle our security deposit dispute with her and we are wanting to know more about the process to sue her in court.
We signed our lease agreement June 2025 and it was supposed to end the end of June 2026. We agreed when we signed that she would allow us to paint and do DIY stuff around the house (this was also written at the end of our lease agreement with certain things listed like a gravel walkway in the yard and painting). She did not have any pet fees and allowed any amount of pets. Her only thing was we would be liable for any damages the pets (we had 3) caused, but no deposit or pet fees during the lease. She also had a bunch of items in the garage, yard, and basement when we moved in.
During the lease, we painted basically every room a different color. The two bedrooms were beige and blue, and we just swapped those. One room was painted dark green, the bathroom was painted light purple, and the living room/dining/kitchen was painted pink. We also got permission from her to get two kittens on top of our 3 other cats. We built a gravel walkway and patio where it was all a mound of dirt to make it look pretty, and we also changed some of the fixtures. Also want to note that we were wanting to buy the house after the year, since that was something that came up before we even signed the lease.
At the beginning of January, our landlord came to us and told us she'd be selling the house because she lost her job. We were anxious and didn't really know what to do, but we started looking for other places because we didn't feel like buying was the right decision anymore. Then, about a month and a half later, she came back to us and said she got another job and would wait to sell until we left. However, since there were other issues with her during this whole process, we all mutually agreed we'd try to leave earlier so we could get out of this situation and she could sell the house earlier. At this point, we still didn't have the worst relationship with her, but it was a little strained. We felt like we had done a lot in the house, thinking we'd buy it, and we were getting the short end of the stick. However, the lease also states that any improvements made would become the landlord's upon move-out, so we just sucked it up and kept looking for a new place.
In April, we let her know we were pretty confident we could find a place, and we could leave sometime in May. She was kind of rushing us because she wanted us out sooner, but we ultimately let her know we'd be out by the end of May. Over the month or two we had left, we kept going back and forth with her, making sure we put everything back to the original state that she wanted. She told us we only needed to paint the pink and the red in the basement back to white, and we could leave the rest of the paint colors. She also kept going back and forth on whether she wanted us to keep the fixtures or not, but we ended up putting everything except one light fixture back. (Note: she told us multiple times the light was beautiful, and the two realtors that she brought also commented on how nice it was. The only iffy thing is whether it actually counts as an improvement.)
Our move-out was when things really hit the fan. We started moving on Friday, May 29, 2026, since that's when we got the keys to the new apartment. Throughout the weekend, she started sending us very nasty messages and rushing us out, even though we had until the end of Sunday. That took an emotional toll on us and we ended up not being able to fully move out until Monday, June 1. We texted her at 3 am on June 1, saying we couldn't finish and that we would come back to finish. We asked her to take the prorated amount out of our security deposit, and she agreed. She ended up going over and taking pictures at 6 am, which we didn't know about until she sent the demand letter. We went back and cleaned the rest of the house, but since she was there the whole time, we didn't fully finish cleaning the garage out.
The next day, she sent a whole bunch of angry and threatening texts telling us she had to cancel plans because we left the place filthy. She at first offered $200, "take the offer today or I'm not returning anything". She then sent more photos of some smudges and normal wear and tear. We could be charged for the floor paint, the carpet on the stairs being scratched by our cat, repainting the bathroom wall after I patched but didn't paint, and the garage and bulk items clean-up. We left an empty dresser, half a gaming chair, a planter pot, and an empty litter box. There were also small items left scattered on the garage floor since we were rushing out. We were willing to pay for all of that, but she sent us a demand letter charging an additional $6400. Two months of rent & $300 in unpaid utilities totalling $5200. She found an empty weed cannister and cigar wrappers in the garage and she's holding that over our heads as well. Those were from when my boyfriend lived in MO, and he never cleaned his car out. He never smoked in or around the house because he hasn't smoked in 2 years, but she is saying we are liable because she found it and its a violation of the lease and state law. However, she has no evidence of the smoke and odor damages she's trying to claim because we never smoked.
We consulted an attorney who sent her a response letter disputing those charges and asking for invoices and receipts to evidence the damages. She repeatedly tried to "settle" over the phone, but he kept replying via email, asking for evidence before he hopped on the phone with her. Now, we're at the beginning of July and the attorney emailed us saying it would be easier to sue her since "she seems to believe she doesn't have to follow the law."
I know there are a lot of details missing, but this is basically the gist of it. We weren't the best about getting the place completely clean but I don't think we deserve to get our entire security deposit taken. We had a nasty falling out, and now she's trying to get more money out of us, and we are trying to sue. I feel like I'm going crazy, and even though we have a bunch of evidence and photos, I feel like we might not win, and I don't know if it will be worth it.
EDIT: I thought I made it clear in my original, but I know I am not the best at explaining things so I wanted to add some more detail. All renovations and painting had written approval, and we had a signed addendum on the lease stating those changes would be made. I already stated the damages were something we were liable for, and we intended to pay them, just not $7400 worth. The landlord gave us written approval to prorate any days if we needed more time to move out, so we took that and asked for one extra day. I wish that I could post pictures but the demand letter she sent used pictures from before we were fully moved out to charge for "excessive filth". We got written approval for everything and made sure to double-check with her weeks in advance to make sure we had the house back the way she wanted. She lied in the demand letter about our lease agreement dates and added an additional month of rent that we do not owe. She also stated we made unauthorized changes even though the signed addendum states otherwise. She said we had unauthorized animals even though we got written approval and the adoption center called her to make sure she was okay with us having them.
She is charging for dishes in the kitchen that we cleaned up the last day we were there, the lawn because she had to mow it before the realtor took pictures. Our understanding is we need written consent to do things outside of the lease terms and we got it. We also do not have to make it ready to sell because that is something the landlord is responsible for. I want to reiterate that we are responsible for the carpet damage and painting she had to do, as well as the cleaning that we didn't fully finish in the garage. However, she listed the house for sale 3 days after we moved out and the pictures show she didn't repair anything she said she had to pay for. That is really our issue with it. Our agreement is an odd one because she is a private landlord and allowed us to do fun things but we put most of it back to normal and kept everything she wanted us to. I just don't think we should be held responsible for "damages" when she specifically asked us to keep things a certain way.