Kyle,
Let me first say that I’m surprised your landlord has such a large non-refundable portion of your deposit. Although, Utah rent laws allow for a non-refundable portion of your deposit; many states have out-lawed the “Non-refundable” deposit. In the future I would urge caution when signing a contract that keeps so much of your deposit.
But, since you’ve already signed the agreement, that’s water behind us– as they say. So back to your question: Should you take the refund or should you dispute it? The answer is simple… If you feel like the charges aren’t fair or merited, then you should dispute it. I’m sure you work hard for your money, and afterall I can think of a lot of things I could get for $115.
Now looking at your charges… The one item that should be non-disputed is the charge for water usage, that should most likely be your responsibility. So this leaves you with $75 worth of deposit charges that you don’t agree with. It’s up to you whether its worth disputing over $75. I would imagine it is still worth it to you, or you wouldn’t have taken the time to log onto the internet to question the charges.
So what are your options?
A) Attorney: $150 to $250 per hour
B) RPA Mediation/ Complaint: $35 Fee
C) Dispute it yourself: Time/ effort
So based on the amount of $75 the only option that seems worth pursuing is to dispute it yourself. However, if you absolutely don’t want to deal with the landlord– you can file a complaint with the RPA, but after you pay the fee you will only be left with $40. So, yes I would dispute the charge to your deposit; they in actuality are keeping $615. Even if you have an RPA Mediator negotiate the deposit, you would still be ahead $40.