You wrote >They are notorious for taking every last penny they can from your deposit, so I am not going to double my deposit. < if you do not know how to then here is what you do , on the day you move in you take a lot of pictures of any thing that appears to have normal wear and tear and write notes to keep with the pictures you print EVERY thing , scratch in a door, discolored area on a counter , that tiny tear in the linoleum that looks like it was glued down, any thing that's not clean , if the paint job is not new then note any so called stains on walls even if very faint or light , carpet if it is not brand new but has say a are with more wear in a hall area note it and try to take pics of it too and then send a copy of your written list to the landlord via certified mail or confirmed mail delivery and in the letter tell them you have noted the following items showing wear and tear. Then when you are ready to move out begin by renting a self storage unit to hold what you wont need for a while and take things to it every few days so you can begin to clean every thing from A to Z so there is not much in the way of cleaning and then in the last couple days begin to take exit pictures of how nice and clean things are and get them printed with dates and if you marry while under the first lease make sure you notify them of this change. THEN in the end if they are not fair about your deposit funds you will have photos that show the start and the end of your tenancy which you would be able to use in court to show the court your proof that they unfairly charged for something especially when it was something that was present at the start of your tenancy. Property management firms come and go, owner ship with out records can occur ( foreclosures) but one thing does seem to happen which is that records can be lost by accident or not go with transfers and new management or owners have no idea of previous wear and tear and do act accordingly and your records could be the thing that puts unfair claims to rest.
