PA Landlord issues

[stoppanda]

Ok. I don't know very much about landlord-tenant laws, and i need some help. So could someone please help?

here is my story:

I signed a lease with my landlady on june 10, 2007 to be in effect until may of 2008. the lease was worded in such a way that I was able to terminate the lease at any time by giving written notice to the landlord 30 days prior to the date or termination.

sometime in october, I was locked out of my apartment in the middle of the night and could not reach my landlady, so i asked the police if they could help. they couldn't jimmy the lock, so we kicked it in. the next day, i bought a new lock and replaced the old one. a new key was never given to the landlordlady. while i was fixing the lock, the upstairs neighbors came down to see what all the noise was about. they saw the repaired lock.

throughout 2007, the landlady had written notices for the tenants to keep the units tidy, as she was showing the property to the president of my school, claiming it was to make sure the building was under code. they entered the building while i was not at home, without having any sort of permission to do so.

on december 29, my landlady sold the building to my school. the reason i rented from her in the first place was so that i did not have to rent from my school. i was never given any notification of the change, and I heard about the transaction from someone on the street, literally.

on june 14 08, I made a written notice to the school that my lease would be terminated on jan 31 08. we both signed the paper.

upon the termination of my lease, I was unable to make sure all my things were gone. the school saw this and contacted me and told me to get my things out or they are throwing them away. i told the property manager that i would have my things out of the apartment shortly.

The lock to the apartment is now broken.

the school is trying to bill me for the damaged lock, cleaning, and a percentage of my rent for every day that my things are there past the date of the termination of my lease.

I don't want to pay anything. here is my reasoning:

i bought the new lock in the first place, and when they bought the building, they obviously saw that the lock had been changed, and they never requested keys. besides this, I had never let them into the building while I was home, and i keep my door locked. the lock is now broken, but there is no proof one way or the other who did it. however, they entered while I was not there, and they didn't have keys. besides, i understand it is common practice to change the lock when someone moves out anyway.

i told them that I would be there to finish cleaning the apartment. besides all this, they plan to remodel the entire building, and they have begun construction on other parts of the building. i think that if they want o get someone to clean it instead of me, they should have to pay for it.

i signed a lease to the previous landlady. it had HER name on it, and not my school's name. it says nothing about the property being leased from all signees, of which my school isnt one anyway. since i did not have a lease with the school anyway, they shouldn't be able to get a figure on how much I should pay, because i wasn't renting from them. besides, i am apparently 'holding over' past the terms of my lease. they say i have 15 days to get my things out before they throw them away. i am not living there, but my things are. how can they charge me per day for this?

it seems like a very messy situation, adn i'd be grateful if someone could help me.