To me a non-refundable pet deposit is really just there to cover the extra cleaning the owner has to do to remove “pet funk”. Every cat owner I’ve ever met thinks their place is spotless but as a non-cat person I have never walked into a cat owners house and said, “wow, I’d never know you had a cat because I can’t smell it at all”. It seem fair that since there was also damage those repair costs come out of the security deposit. $245 for the damage to the stairs doesn’t seem unreasonable.
Did you ever figure out what or if the purpose of the pet deposit was spelled out somewhere?
Soo… this thread was fun.
It sounds like you are making money!