Hi, I’m looking for some advice on what actions I should take to go after a former landlord (Property Management Company)

I’m not sure that receiving the deposit back will make me whole, but I feel they took advantage of a lot of people, and I feel that now that I have the means to pursue it, I am considering taking action.

Events: I lived in a new apartment complex in western PA for 2 years with a year contract each year, no missed payments or complaints about me. At the end of the 2 years, I was interviewing for jobs and was not able to renew my lease, so I asked for monthly lease. (Previous lease was ~$1250, monthly was ~$1500.

The building is sold to a new owner who brings in a new Property Management company. My first interaction with this company is my AC breaking in the middle of the summer - the maintenance number is disconnected and the email addresses bounce back. Also they have issues transitioning their new payment portal.

The new company offers me a yearly lease, but also raises my month-to-month to $2000, I’m still not able to firmly commit to this.

When I go to make a payment for a month, the payment clears my account, but they send a “bounced payment” email a few days later. The account I’m using never shows the amount refunded/bouncing, and unfortunately I lost access to this account a few weeks later due to a security issue.

So we’re disputing this and we end up in magistrate court. I present my evidence, and they theirs. The decision of the court is a settlement, I will pay a reduced amount and they will consider it settled and also provide me with a updated yearly lease offer.

After court, I paid the exact amount the judge decided through the management portal website. The balance is never updated to reflect the judge’s settlement amount. Additionally, they refuse to renew my lease and demand I leave in 30 days.

I use the remainder of money intended for rent on a deposit for a new apartment and moving expenses and have about 3 weeks from that time of unpaid rent. (As I had to pay around $3K at move-in to my new place)

I paid around $250 for a professional cleaning company (that the property management company uses themselves) to do a move-out clean.. the place was absolutely spotless and I took photos.

They are suggesting I owe around $4K This consists of the money they claim I previously owed (minus the settlement amount I paid), the money for the 3 weeks I did not pay prior to moving (May be valid) , and charged $250 for “unit cleaning” and “carpet cleaning”. They have used the $1K deposit toward cleaning and part of this balance.

They sent this to collections and tried to add this to my credit report, but I successfully disputed it.

Additionally, there were about 8 other units on my floor with Eviction Hearing notices on their door, one day when I came back from work, so 50% of the units.. one of my neighbors said she had a similar payment issue and they just took her to court with no discussion.

I’m curious as to the best course of action. Is there any chance I have potential for some type of claim here? Should I pay the 3 weeks rent? Did they do anything illegal here?