[NC] Ex-landlord says we owe $3000 in damages, ex-roommates want to just ignore him. I think this is a bad Idea but I don't want to be held solely responsible if I choose not to ignore Landlord and everyone else does.

I have been living in a 4 bedroom house for the past 3 years with 3 other roommates. The landlord wants to sell the house and we needed to be out by August 1st, which was fine by us, he let know us now a couple months ago and we were all eager to move anyways. We never re-signed our lease last August and so we were basically month-month. We had all found places (separately) that we could be moved into by mid-July, and had told our landlord that since we would only be there half a month, that we would only pay half-rent. He never said anything about it so we figured it was okay. After reading some stuff online today, I found out this usually doesn't fly and we would probably have to pay the full months rent. After 3 years we were not expecting to get the security deposit back. They had actually been bringing in contractors last month to survey the place and get estimates because they were planning on doing a huge renovation before selling.

Anyways I actually moved out at the beginning of the month and everyone else would be moving out by mid-month. I moved all my stuff out and cleaned my room and some common areas. There was some damage to the trim of the back door and the front door itself needed to be replaced that I knew would probably come back on us as some damages we would have to pay for. I figured the rest of the guys would take care of everything else and they finished moving out on Tuesday. The power was in my name and I had it shut off Wednesday.

This morning, my old roommate received an email from our landlord, (It was forwarded to me by old roomie but I was not actually sent it from the landlord.) Claiming $3000 in damages, almost all of it seems to be marked up exorbitantly. He says we owe close to $1000 for replacing the trim on the back door and all the trim on all doors in the house. I know for a fact that the trim on the back door is only one that was damaged, and all other trim in the house was in the same condition it was in when we moved in. I can understand that item being on his list although it should be less that $400 IMO. It was just on one side of the trim. I also understand have the front door on his list as a couple hundred dollars as well.

However it turns out that my old roommates left a couple mattresses and furniture in the house that the landlord is charging us $750 for disposal.They left a bunch of food in the fridge that spoiled due to power being off and now the fridge needs to be cleaned and sanitized, close to $500. I am not trying to shun responsibility and I should have went back and checked on the place once they moved all of there stuff but I did not think they were going to leave the house which furniture and food still in the fridge. The landlord also wants to charge us for the remainder of the rent for the month, around $750. Which he is legally allowed to collect.

My old roommates want to ignore him, they believe since we didn't actually renew our lease last year, that our landlord fucked up and we aren't responsible for any of that. They think our old landlord doesn't really have any way to collect. I'm sure he can take use to collections or small claims court.

Now a couple of things, the email he sent didn't include any receipts or truly itemized deductions. Like it said backdoor trim and all inside door trim needs to be replaced $1000. So it doesn't specify how labor or materials are being spend, so I am unsure if he is just guessing a number or what. And I don't know if he has actually done any of this yet. Especially since he sent the email this morning and everyone had only been out Tuesday night. Also since he is saying that we are on the hook for the rest of the month rent, does that mean I can still go over and fix some of the claims myself before the end of the month. Or since we already vacated, then we are pretty much SOL on that front. Going over and disposing of the furniture left behind, seems like a very easy fix to get rid of $750.

I told my roommates that I think we should get in touch and try to fix as much as we can on own dime, but they think the best option is to ignore him. I think this is a bad idea but I am worried that if I step up by myself then I admitting sole responsibility and will be held for the total amount. What do you think my best course of action should be?