Unfair security deposit amount deduction by House owner
Hi,
We (my husband & I) had rented an independent house from September 1st, 2012 to January 30th 2015 at Bangalore, with a security deposit of Rs.1,00,000. The rent was Rs.13,000 for 1st year, and it was increased to Rs.15,000 in the 2nd yr. We had provided almost 3 months notice before vacating, and the owner had come to inspect the condition of the house, and gave us a list of what all needs to be fixed before vacating (including painting of some worn-off walls, cleaning of entire house etc.)This was accepted by us, and we hired a professional service, to clean the entire house bearing the expense from our pocket, and we also hired a painter who did the painting work on the said worn-off walls using the same shade of paint used by the owner from the same brand. Now,the owner is reluctant to pay us back the entire security deposit stating the following expense :
(a) He got the entire house re-painted for around Rs.70,000, and he has taken around Rs.30,000 from our security deposit for the same.
(b) list of other items which totalled to Rs.16,750 in the receipt he shared with us.
(Shower head fixing,Kitchen & channel fixing,ventilation repair work,Health faucet,Bathroom flush tank alteration, Bathroom & Kitchen acid wash cleaningAngle koke, waste pipe etc.)
In total, he has deducted around Rs.37,000 from our security deposit, which is around 2.5 months rent.
His point is that he has already waivered off the painting charges and that the painting which we got done was patch-work, so we are the culprits here.
But, on doing some research ,I could find that normal wear&tear charges need not be provided by the tenant, considering that the house was already 8 yrs old before it was rented to us, and we had stayed there for around 2.5yrs. The rent agreement states that the house be returned in the same condition in which it was provided to us. When the house was given to us on rent,it was very clean & polished, and all walls re-painted (this was not our demand, the owner did the same himself).But all the fittings/ventilation were same as before,but clean.
1) Is it rightful of him to charge us for an additional Rs.30,000 for painting, despite us painting the worn-off walls,as he suggested earlier?
2) Is it rightful of him to charge us additional amount for the attached list of items, which is part of normal wear & tear in a house rented for 2.5 yrs?
3) Pls let us know if there are any more unfair points in this scenario & can we take legal action against him.