How would you deal with a mildly aggressive relationship with your landlord now that you're leaving?

Original Post

UPDATE:

To all the wonderful women that replied to and supported me on my last post, I am so very grateful.

I have successfully vacated, and here's my long revenge story (for most, this wouldn't even count as revenge lol). It's long, but if you enjoy pettiness, I hope you will enjoy this.

After the meanness of her telling me to "refrain from sharing my personal views" with prospective tenants, the landlady did not send any more visitors. I was very grateful for that. The move was a beast, even though the home was tiny, but I got it done single-handedly, and I am proud.

Being an anxious person, I had planned to vacate at least 2 days before my rental period ran out anyway, but then this evil woman said I needed to hand over the keys on the 14th and I should tell her the time. My contract says explicitly my rental period begins on the 15th of the month and ends on the 14th, which means the 14th is included in the term, but because I am a pussy, I didn't point that out to her. I wanted to leave with as little drama as possible. I told her I would let her know on the 13th. Secretly, the 13th was the day my final shifting was planned for anyway. Right from the morning of the 13th, she started hounding me to tell her when I would vacate and saying she needed to start processes. It made me very scared and jumpy (I DO NOT KNOW WHY! SHE WASN'T EVEN THERE), but I didn't respond, did all the final bits, and texted her in the evening that the place was vacant and I wasn't available on the 14th.

Here is why I did that. I was the first tenant of this makeshift apartment. When I moved in, it was just a big studio-esque room on the top floor of the house. It had no water connection, no electric meter, no stove, and bills were shared with the people on the lower floor because it didn't have separate meters. I had to beg her for a stove, and after great back and forth, she deigned to agree. Everything else, I installed on my dime.

I am just a very anxious person and also acted like a de facto manager between the 3 tenants that have come and gone on the first floor, with whom I shared my bills. I initiated bill calculation, I sent it to them for approval, I hounded them to send their share before x date, and I paid all the bills.

I removed EVERY SINGLE IMPROVEMENT I had made that made that place liveable. I had to pay to have them removed, but I was feeling furious and petty (but still scared, always scared). I removed the water connection, the electric meter, the AC connection, etc.

After I let her know I wasn't available, I texted my neighbour with the shared bills to contact the landlady for that month's bills, which were to arrive in like 4 days after I was to leave. I told her it was in my contract (it is, I wasn't lying). But I also know my landlady had no intention of giving back my deposit because the previous 2 tenants downstairs never saw their deposits back. Because I had been agreeable and took on way more than I was required to and didn't fight her on anything just to keep the peace, she thought I would go without a fight (which I kinda did. I avoided confrontation). I knew she thought she could pull a fast one on me and tell me due to xyz damage (?) it would cost her x to fix and, therefore, I would only get pennies back or nothing at all. But here's what I knew and she didn't: my electric bill would be very close to what the deposit is because, unlike last month, when I hadn't used my AC too much out of fear of increasing the charges, I hadn't given a single fuck this month. She would be left with pennies afterwards, and that makes me want to do the evil genius laugh, except it's not even evil! It says right there in the contract: deposit is refundable upon vacating, after paying pending bills and dues, if any.

I had intended to do none of this. I had a draft written in my Notes app for what this house meant to me as my first independent home. I wrote it long ago when I was feeling particularly grateful. I would have left all the improvements as is. But in the end, I realised goodwill needs to be earned. She essentially drove me out by being bitchy, by taking advantage of my good nature (essentially complacency), and making me pay far more in charges that were hers to bear.

Funny bit? The charges because of which I left got fixed this month. Lol. The electric bill would have been wayyy more than my deposit (and way more enjoyable for me) if that hadn't happened, but I guess this is how it was supposed to end.

Why did I agree to rent this shithole, you may ask? I was new to the city, the apartment was in a safe area, 4 mins away from my new job. I was overwhelmed, and it was my first time renting alone. I was in a hurry to have a home before day 1 of the new job, so in haste.

I want to say, the end events notwithstanding, I loved my little, very hot in summer, very cold in winter home. I have cried after leaving. It was imperfect in a lot of ways, but it sheltered me during some truly insane periods of the past almost 5 years of my life.

I don't know if this was a satisfying read or not. I was scared for many days after I left, like I did something wrong, but I didn't. I had spiteful feelings, but my actions were neither unwarranted nor unfair (definitely not illegal either lol). I checked online, the bills have successfully been paid. I do understand a better challenge might have been dealing with it head on. Not blocking her, telling her she will have to direct the funds from my deposit towards these bills, not avoiding this confrontation because of fear but it was a very mentally and physically taxing I didn't have the capacity to teach myself heavy new lessons during this time but it still felt somewhat satisfying.