<prompt> Human: I just moved out of my old apartment and had to wait 4 weeks for my landlord to return my 1300 security deposit. When I received it, he had deducted 775 125 to clean the apartment, 175 to clean the carpet, and 475 to repair small nail holes from pictures and shelves. I took everything out of the apartment and there are no stains on the carpet and the paint is fine no chips or scratches. My lease does not say anything about wear and tare, it only says damages may be deducted from the deposit.I emailed the landlord a month before move out asking him if he covers normal wear and tare but he would not respond. I asked a Realtor that lives in my building about it and he said the landlord should cover wear and tare.Is there anything I can do to get the rest of my deposit back or can he claim the holes in the wall, carpet cleaning and unit cleaning are damages?Edit: Additional info, state is FL and apartment is a 770 sqft one bedroom apartment and no, unfortunately I did not take any photos.  <response>: You can take your ex landlord to small claims court. I have done this process and it is not a bad process.First thing though - did you take pictures of what the apartment looked like after you left?Then look at your states laws about security deposit return. My state, California, is very particular that normal wear and tear is the landlords responsibility.I filed in small claims court and my landlord had to appear no lawyers allowed in small claims. They had already admitted to me that they always do a carpet clean after every tenant leaves and I told the judge. In my state, if a landlord requires something to be done after each vacancy, no matter what state the apartment was left in, it is the landlords responsibility. The judge saw the clean carpets in the pictures I had and the landlord admitted that no matter how clean the carpet was, they would do a carpet cleaning and charge for it. They also tried to claim an apartment cleaning cost, but again my pictures showed a very clean apartment. Same thing with wearing paint. Paint has a very defined life in California law, so it was a false charge.At the end, I was awarded my security deposit back. I went in prepared and with plenty of pictures. If you have such evidence, then small claims court will be an easy thing. If you have no pictures, it becomes much more difficult to prove. 