Hi Guys please help us out here.
We rented an apartment on 15sept and paid 2 months deposit to the owner. After 3-4 days we found there were bed bugs in the house and we contacted the owner to do pest control in our house. He kept delaying it saying that we have requested a pest control company but they are busy and will be soon coming to the house.
In the meantime the menace of bedbugs was increasing day by day and we had to throw our beds and some other things too due to that. Finally on 3oct we decided to vacate the house as no pest control was done on the house and we had skin infections due to bed bugs.
We told the owner that due to bed bugs we have health issue and are leaving the house, please pay our deposit back. He said we needed to give him a months notice in advance. There was no lease agreement between us. We reminded him and he kept delaying it saying its under process.
We agreed and gave him a formal notice of 1 month (i.e. till 3 Nov). When we emailed him back asking for our deposit on 4 Nov he is saying that we had to return him the keys which we did not. He says that after we return the keys he will give the deposit back deducting another 15 days of rent.
What can be done in this case ? Can someone please help ?