Landlord Refuses To Return Deposit.

Location: Nebraska USA

so here's a bit of backstory. my cousin was the previous tenant of the unit we moved out of. We had saw a listing of the unit promising a remodeled home with hardwood flooring and brown painted walls (we have screenshots of this) because my cousin was moving out in a hurry, and is a single mom of 4 kids, she gave us a good review to the landlord so we were able to sign the lease quickly. we signed the lease in april of 2022, and were told we had to wait a month or so to move in so they can remodel. once move in day comes in the middle of june, my cousins things are still in the place and absolutely nothing was remodeled.

we were confused. they pushed back move in time by a couple hours because they had forgotten we were moving in. when we got there the carpet was barely being vacuumed, my cousins couches were still there, and there were multiple paint stains on the carpet which the landlord's assistant stated they "have taken notice to that". blinds were broken, the cupboards and closets were filled to the brim with junk.

we called the office asking to replace the blinds and were told we would have to pay even though we had just moved in that day. we called the landlords assistant and asked why nothing had been remodeled (which we wanted the hardwood flooring because I have a severe dust allergy), and he stated he had never told us such a thing, and that the previous tenant had stated that we allowed her to leave her things there, which she denied, stating she had no one to help and since she gave up her deposit she assumed the landlord would have had it cleaned out during remodel. The assistant ended with, "if youre so unhappy, just move out." we left it at that because we had no where else to go.

in feb 2024, our shower tiles blew off from the wall because of a pipe burst and floods the kitchen right below it. we told our landlord of this immediately and we also have ring camera footage reminding maintenance about the stain in the ceiling. It never gets taken care of.

We finally move out end of february 2026, and I had deep cleaned the apartment along with my mom, leaving a couple of boxes behind filled with the junk they left when we moved in. I also have video footage of all this, just in case.

here comes to the middle of march, and they had sent us a settlement charges guide (which was nearly a 2k cleaning fee with scribbles on the paper of what they had to clean, and that theyre charging 600 to repaint all the walls and 500 to clean carpets and nearly 500 to fix the kitchen ceiling) instead of our deposit. we were never given photos of things we left damaged, no itemized bills, no nothing. we sent them a letter in the mail demanding for our full deposit or we'd send him to small claims court with all our evidence. Then he sends me this letter in the mail, stating he will counter sue and to just meet him in person in his office and that he will win this case, yet still sent no itemized bill or proof of destruction.

I am a bit anxious and do not know how to go from here. I feel like I'm being gaslit and bullied. I'm scared if I take him to court he will fight harder, even though I have all the evidence. How can I go from here? I have severe anxiety so sending the letter demanding our deposit back took a lot out of me. We lived there for about 4 years.