How do you define normal wear & tear?

When moving to Miami we rented a house in Palmetto Bay, nice area, good schools etc. On the first sight the landlords seemed nice, no wonder as we paid 6 months rent in advance.

Soon we noticed, that the landlords were very reclutant to pay for any repairs, even though we notified them a number of times. A tree in the front yard kept growing and soon was leaning to the house. No reaction. The roof was leaking in the living room and in the patio in a couple of places. No reaction. Toilet walls started molding no reaction. And the list goes on.

When we moved out (from Miami and from the US) we had to advance our flights in a short notice. Thus we did not have time to clean properly. No worries I thought, as the landlady had said that they will clean the house anyways. And quite frankly, after seeing how difficult it was to pay for any repairs in the house I was expecting to pay for cleaning. What happened next?

As soon as we were out of the country we received a number of shocked messages of "how bad the house looked". It took 2 weeks to get the "inventory list" which looked more like a letter to Santa Claus. We had been very careful to take pictures before and after - but as we were out of the country and therefore unable to verify the claimed damage in person, she insisted on keeping the deposit which surprisingly enough was almost exactly the same amount as the estimated repairs.

My recommendation for people interested in living in the house is the following.

Be careful if renting - the landlords will not pay for any repairs, not even those that are needed urgently.

If buying: check out the roof. There are leaks in the living room, master bathroom and guestroom. Also: molding expected in the bathrooms (which should be re-done anyways).