Each of these is a refusal this regime lets a counterparty attempt, paired with the answer to it. Reading them before you write is worth more than any amount of polish on the letter itself.
The landlord charges you for ordinary wear and tear
high likelihoodThe landlord bills you for repainting, carpet cleaning, or "making good" the unit, treating ordinary deterioration as damage.
What answers it
Vermont does not allow a deposit to be applied to normal wear and tear. § 4461(b) lists the only four things a Vermont deposit may be applied to: nonpayment of rent; "damage to property of the landlord, unless the damage is the result of normal wear and tear or the result of actions or events beyond the control of the tenant"; unpaid utility or other charges the tenant had to pay directly; and "expenses required to remove from the rental unit articles abandoned by the tenant". The list is closed. A cleaning charge that is not repairing damage, an early-termination fee, a re-letting fee or an administration charge is not on it. Ask the landlord to identify, item by item, what exceeds that standard, and to produce the move-in condition record that shows the item was not already worn when you took possession.
9 V.S.A. § 4461 — § 4461
"The carpet/paint had to be replaced"
high likelihoodThe landlord charges the full cost of a new carpet, new paint or a new appliance against your deposit.
What answers it
A tenant is not liable for the full replacement cost of an item that was already part-way through its useful life. The recoverable figure is the depreciated value of the remaining life, not a new-for-old replacement. Ask for the installation date and the invoice; carpet is conventionally depreciated over five to ten years and interior paint over two to four. A landlord who cannot date the item cannot prove the loss, and in a deposit case the landlord carries the burden.
9 V.S.A. § 4461 — § 4461
"We never received a forwarding address"
high likelihoodThe landlord says it could not return the deposit because it did not know where to send it.
What answers it
Vermont does not condition the landlord's duty on receiving a forwarding address, so this is no answer at all. The landlord had a duty to account regardless, and could have sent the statement to the last known address.
9 V.S.A. § 4461 — § 4461
"We sent you the itemisation"
high likelihoodThe landlord asserts it posted the itemised statement inside the statutory window and that you simply did not receive it.
What answers it
Ask for proof of despatch, not proof of intention: the certificate of mailing, the certified-mail receipt, the tracking number, or the timestamped email. Most deposit statutes require the statement to be sent within the period, and the landlord bears the burden of showing it did so. An unevidenced assertion that a letter was posted is not evidence that it was.
9 V.S.A. § 4461 — § 4461
"We had to have the unit professionally cleaned"
high likelihoodA flat "cleaning fee" is deducted whether or not the unit was left dirty.
What answers it
A standing cleaning charge applied to every tenant is not a loss caused by you and is not a permitted deduction. The landlord must show the unit was left less clean than it was at move-in and must produce the invoice for the work actually done. Compare the move-in and move-out condition records; where the landlord did not make a move-in record, it has little with which to prove the difference.
9 V.S.A. § 4461 — § 4461
"You cannot show we acted wilfully"
high likelihoodThe landlord treats wilfulness as the gate to any recovery at all.
What answers it
It is the gate to the doubling only. The first sentence of § 4461(e) is strict: "If a landlord fails to return the security deposit with a statement within 14 days, the landlord forfeits the right to withhold any portion of the security deposit." Whether the failure was wilful decides whether the sum is doubled and whether fees and costs follow; it decides nothing about the deposit itself, which comes back either way.
9 V.S.A. § 4461 — § 4461
"There was a cleaning fee in the lease"
high likelihoodThe landlord deducts a charge the lease provides for but the statute does not.
What answers it
§ 4461(b) is a closed list of four permitted applications and a standing cleaning fee is on none of them. Cleaning is recoverable only where it is repairing "damage to property of the landlord" that is not normal wear and tear. Ask the landlord to identify which of the four paragraphs of § 4461(b) its charge falls under; if it cannot, the charge is not a permitted deduction and keeping it past day 14 forfeits the whole deposit.
9 V.S.A. § 4461 — § 4461
"You broke the lease, so we keep the deposit"
medium likelihoodThe landlord treats an early departure as forfeiting the deposit outright.
What answers it
A deposit is security for actual loss, not a penalty. Breaking a lease may make you liable for rent until the unit is re-let, but the landlord must mitigate, must itemise what it actually lost, and must still account for the deposit within the statutory period. A blanket forfeiture clause does not survive: deposit statutes are generally non-waivable, so a lease term purporting to let the landlord keep the money regardless is unenforceable.
9 V.S.A. § 4461 — § 4461
"We did not know you had left until later"
medium likelihoodThe landlord pushes the start of the 14 days out to a discovery date of its own choosing.
What answers it
§ 4461(c) gives two alternative start dates: the date the landlord discovers the unit was vacated or abandoned, or the date you actually vacated "provided the landlord received notice from the tenant of that date". If you gave written notice of your move-out date, that is the date, and the landlord's account of when it noticed is beside the point. Produce the notice, the keys handover, the final meter reading or the dated email.
9 V.S.A. § 4461 — § 4461
"This was a seasonal letting, so we had 60 days"
medium likelihoodThe landlord claims the longer period for what was in fact your home.
What answers it
The 60 days apply only "In the case of the seasonal occupancy and rental of a dwelling unit not intended as a primary residence". Both limbs have to be true: the occupancy must be seasonal and the unit must not have been intended as a primary residence. A twelve-month lease on the place you lived, registered to vote from and received post at is not seasonal, whatever the agreement is headed.
9 V.S.A. § 4461 — § 4461