Some Background: We lived in an apartment in North NJ and signed a lease where it was specially stated that we were paying "Pet Rent." Multiple times while living here we had issues with our plumbing, heating, and cooling and other things that we were very accommodating for even going an hour an half to shower. We also left this place extremely clean our entire stay including a nice deep clean when we left.

The land lord is trying to take off a lot of our security deposi, but there are 3 main issues with that we disagree with our security deposit:

• Carpet cleaning - we lived on a Second floor apartment above a restaurant. We have two enterances one in the front and one in the back near the parking lot. This is where we came in everyday rain, snow, salt. This is where all of the repair men came in an out of. The land lord is claiming that after showing potential tenets the place that there was an order they said came from our dog. They charged us for their standard clean of $188.
• Showering Clog - About a month before we were going to move out our shower started to not drain. After trying multiple things, including it starting to leak into the apartment downstairs they had to call a plumbe. The plumber snaked the drain and got the clog out. They never mentioned that this was going to be on us to pay for during the two weeks it took to fix. Now the landlord is claiming that the clog was because of excessive dog hair and is charging us $250. (note: I have long blonde hair that could easily contributed to the clog as well as living an old building with excessive plumbing issues)
• Exterior Door "Repair" and painting - We had a security sticker on the outside of our door. we removed the sticker and there were some residual left (yes, we should have cleaned it but we forgot) now the landlord is saying to remove the goo and repaint the door it was going to be $250.

To us if shes going to blame the dog for the normal entry and normal living in the apartment then the carpet should be covered with the $1,200 paid in "pet rent" if she wants to go back and say it wasn't the dog again that should be considered normal wear and tear. For the exterior door, it just seems excessive for them to take $250 dollars for goo-gone and paint espec without a receip.

The advice I'm looking for is if this is worth pursuing in small claims court. The money isn't a big deal, it just feels like she's trying to take advantage of us. We had a discussion yesterday with them and it was not successful at mediating the situation?

Sorry for any typing errors typing all of this out via my phone was hard.