I don't understand why you think grandma can sue. If the place had mold and no working heaters when you moved in. you would have gotten that resolved or would have moved out immediately. Your grandmother has no recourse now, if she didn't do anything about it then.
Its too late to make an issue out of the mold or the heaters. The time to address that was when you moved in & 1st noticed it. You can not retroactively try to sue about an issue you have lived with for 5 months. Also if you never reported these issues or if you did & they were fixed then you also have no case.
The damage: tenants should not make repairs themselves. If the repair is not done to landlord satisfaction you can still be charged to have someone do it their way. You admit to causing it so you must pay for it. Your not getting out of that one.
If you broke the lease, which at 5 months i would expect you did, then your grandmother may not be entitled to the deposit back at all. If you broke the lease you, or rather your mother's estate, may be liable for any lease break fees stated in the lease.
At this point all you can do is dispute any charges in court.
When you first moved in you accepted the property in as is condition. If you discovered an issue that needed maintenance, you had a legal obligation to report the issue to the landlord in writing. If you failed to do so you can't sue the landlord for it. State law requires all maintenance requests be in writing.
The only party that can sue the landlord for the security deposit is the person(s) who signed the lease. If that was Mom, her estate's executor could sue for her since the deposit would be paid to Mom's estate if it was refunded. The landlord is also limited in suing the person(s) who signed the lease.
Make sure you and your Mom's executor goes to court. If possible show pictures proving the repairs made or if not force the landlord to prove the damages, and actual costs to the judge. Chances are your repairs were ok, but that the patch work you did was obvious requiring painting to be done on the entire room(s) for it to blend, or you used sub par materials,
I'm not really sure what your grandmother has to do with the situation, but the black mold and security deposit issues are independent of one another.
Your grandmother has no case unless she was on the lease.
Unless you have some proof that the place was damaged BEFORE you got it, you will lose.
Okay so about 5 months ago my mother passed away in our old apartment due to personal issues. We moved out when the incident happened. When we first moved in their was black mold on the ceiling above the shower and leading into the basement. Also the heater in the kitchen and bathroom were not working. Can my grandmother sue since she payed the security deposit?
This is totally different now me and my brother damaged the apartment before all this happened. When we moved out we fixed both doors we damaged with brand new ones and drywalled/ painted the holes in the wall to the same exact color. He is saying that we damaged the apartment after we fixed it and wont give us our security deposit back. He's taking us to court for it. I need advice ASAP
