My rooommate and I left our lease one month early, with a verbal agreement from the landlord that he would return the security deposit if he was able to rent the apt. for the entire last month of our lease. He was able to do so. However, he returned only part of our deposit, because he rented the apartment for a few hundred dollars less than he'd been charging us (his choice, since I saw dumpier apts. in the same block going for more $ than he subsequently rented ours for).
Is this action legal? We have no hard proof of the verbal agreement, and he claims I "misunderstood" him when he said he'd return the deposit. He's not trying to claim any damage to the apartment, simply he rented it for less than he was charging us, and made up the difference for the last month of our original lease by taking it out of the security deposit.