Hi, I really need some advice here. I'm not sure if I'm in the wrong here, but I'll explain the situation to you. I started renting an apartment out from my landlord last August. When I moved in the living room and my room were relatively clean. But when I went to the kitchen there was an old, old refrigerator. The inside of the refrigerator was hardly clean and was pretty rusted with rotten food stains on the bottom floor of the fridge. The bathroom was a mess too. I didn't really feel like complaining much so I just let it drop. Over the year, I mostly stayed at my girlfriend's house. I did stop by my apartment occasionally to check mail and just generally check the apartment out. There was minimal food in the fridge the whole time since most of the food was kept in my girlfriend's apartment. Two weeks before my lease expires, I go to my apartment move out all the big things, remove all the food from the fridge. The a few days before the lease expired, I went back and removed all the other basic stuff. Two weeks later, the landlord mails me saying that they won't return the security deposit. $150 for shampooing the carpet and cleaning the house. That was fine, because I didn't clean the apartment very thoroughly. But then they demanded $517 more for the cost of a new refrigerator. They said that the refrigerator smelled so bad they had to replace it. We offered to buy them a better used fridge than they had, but they refused saying they didn't want one w/out a warranty, even though their's was so old its warranty was obviously dead. When I left the apartment the fridge didn't smell at all. I heard that at the most, I'm only liable for the current value of that old fridge. Is this true, or am I supposed to pay for the whole thing?

edit: I live in Pennsylvania by the way, if that helps any.

most leases have damages minus ordinary wear and tear, excepting also for the unforeseeable, tior, war, insurrection; so I figure you owe nothing for a fridge that was worthless when you got it as they got it back in worthless condition; what would help is if you had pictures or a witness to the condition of the apartment fridge if they decide to take this to court

well when I moved into the apartment, my family members saw the refrigerator, my friend saw it, and so did the realtor who introduced me to the landlords. Would my family or friend's witness accounts be usable in court? I thought that maybe family or friend's didn't really count for anything in court. I'm not sure if the realtor would be willing to testify against their friends either.