I was living with roommates in an apartment where the landlord was 'management' rather than a person.
The building's policy which everyone signs is that roommates who move out of the building are NOT responsible for damages to the apartment. Only the remaining roommates are. They do this because they take only the ORIGINAL inhabitants security deposit.
So originally there were 4 people in that apartment. One of those poeple moved out and I took their place. I gave a security deposit to the roommate that was leaving (because the building would not officially give him back his security deposit unless ALL of the original inhabitants moved out) and that was supposed to be the 'return' of his security deposit. The arrangement was that when the next roommate was supposed to come to replace me I was supposed to get THEIR security deposit which would have replaced my own. I lived there for many years and throughout the years all of the original inhabitants of the apartment moved out (except for one) and they all got their security deposit this way. When they left the next roommate would pay them the security deposit etc... The last people to move out of the apartment would get the official check from the building.
Well, something happened to me where I had to go to the hospital during the last few days of my move so I asked one of my roommates (who was the only original inhabitant left) if he could get the security deposit from the next roommate who was replacing me. He agreed. When I returned from the hospital he told me that the building decided I owed a great deal of money in damages. I approached management and they told me (and put it in writing) that this was a lie. They did not charge me for damages at all.
What are my chances of winning if I take my roommates to court for not giving me the security deposit of the roommate who took my place? I have the building's statement in writing and I also have pictures of the room from the last time I saw it. However because of the weirdness of the way we were handling the security deposits I'm not sure what the judge will say.