When my husband and I moved out of our rental, we were still in contract for another 6 months. We did the right thing, gave a "move out notice" and advised that we would still pay for the remainder of the 6 months which we were responsible for. They required us to keep all of the utilities on in our name. We paid on time every month, we moved out aug 06 and our lease was just up this feb 07. We continued to pay same amount of rent, the thing is, they took our keys from us. We were required to pay full rent, pay all utilities, all while having no access to the house. We were going along with it, and then we started getting high gas bills, and ended up having an 80.00 water bill (in winter, for the month of january) now at this time in Kansas, its freezing, and no one waters their yard. I then called to advise her of these high bills, as stated that I wanted a key back so I may have control of my own utitilies. She refused at this time to give us back a key. Then recently, I received a bill from them, after giving them a 700.00 deposite, we still owed and additional 140.00( ON TOP OF THE 700 ALREADY GIVEN 2 YEARS AGO) being that we do not have a written agreement showing any damages when we moved in, and none were recorded when we moved out. Neither one of us filled out a damage report chart(stupid I now know). I am wondering what to do at this point. She sent me receipts for parts bought, and it only came up to around 230.00. So shouldn't I still have a refund due to us? Was we completely screwed, and were all agreements that we agreed upon after we moved out voided when they took the keys from us, is'nt that like an eviction, I mean we were still paying everything for that house??

Its 20/20 hind sight but you should have moved out and defaulted on the rent. The owner could then search for a new tenant and you would be on the hook only for the vacant month or two before the new person moved in, plus landlord fees.