Can a Partial Amount Be Awarded in Small Claims Court? (Landlord-tenant issue)

Hello all, Ohio resident here. Considering suing my landlord for damage to my personal property due to his neglect. (Skip to the TL;DR at the end)

Details: Roof leaked under normal rain conditions when I had previously noted the problem to him. Later I fixed it myself. When it leaked, it dripped on my laptop, fried it, $480 of damage. I have videos and documentation out the wazoo. This seems to be a no-brainer that it is his responsibility according to my googling. Later, he still had not fixed it sufficiently, it began dripping into the walls, making mold. I asked him to fix this, he said he would get to it but never did. I ended up doing it myself months later. I had to spend three weeks living somewhere else because the mold was so bad.

Also, we had an oral agreement that I would do electrical/handyman work around the building in exchange for being able to use the roof, it was informal with no set requirements on each end. I have this documented on audio, although he later disagreed that it was more formal and that I did not fulfill my end. I spent 30+ hours removing the wall, fixing damaged ceiling, and waterproofing the building from the outside. I did this both because he refused to and because I thought it was my contribution to our oral agreement.

I am considering suing him for:

  • $480 - damaged laptop (I am the most certain this should be awarded, and if I knew it was all-or-nothing, I would probably just sue for this)

  • $200 - 21 days I could not stay in my apartment (month rent is $300) and...

  • $600 - (30 hrs x $20/hr) from the work I did fixing up my place. $20/hr is a bargain for him for someone to do handyman work and less than I charge my clients.

Documentation I Have: I have signed statements from tenants as to his pattern of negligence and supporting my claim that I did the work to waterproof the building. I have a statement from my friend who shared his apartment from me when I could not stay there. I have documentation of the leaking on video and mold in pictures extensively as well as the repair order from the computer company.

What I Lack: The only thing I don't have is good documented proof of my persistent requests to him. I don't have much of a way of proving this, his workers would never tell the truth in sworn testimony.

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TL;DR - Can a judge award a partial amount that you are suing for or is it all or nothing?

Posted Aug 14, 2017, 7:25 PM UTC · edited

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