I am in Virginia. My landlord took $120 out of my security deposit. She took $20 out for not delivering the keys to her daughter's house, although it wasn't in the contract, and I never agreed to deliver them there and left them in the apartment where she could easily access them. Then, she took $100 to repair a damage left by a contractor she hired to remodel the bathroom. The contractor had painted around a decorative shelf I had hung in the bathroom, and when I removed it while moving, there was a space that had not been painted due to the shelf being up. The contractors had removed cabinets from the bathroom, but not this shelf held up by two small screws. When I addressed these issues with her, she didn't say anything about it and then said I needed to pay for a professional to clean the carpets. I told her she could not charge me and not my roommate since the space was shared (my former roommate said she received all of her security deposit in full). Then, she threatened to counter sue me for $2000 to pay for her plane ticket out here (she lives in the midwest). Can she counter sue me for that and do I even have a case against her?
YOU installed the decorative shelf. Did you get permission, IN WRITING, from the LL to install it prior to doing so? Why did you not leave the shelf when you moved out? Any permanently affixed improvements made by the tenants automatically become the property of the LL, unless express written permission is given.
When the LL remodeled the bathroom, they were forced to paint around your self-installed decorative shelf. Apparently, since you removed it again and took it with you when you left, they were forced to paint the area on the wall which the shelf had previously occupied in order to correct the damage that resulted from the installation. That was a consequence of you having installed the shelf and deciding to take it with you when you left. I'm seeing the cost that was charged as a result of having to paint that wall as being perfectly valid.
As for the keys, since you did not personally deliver them into the hands of the LL, there was no way to know whether or not you had kept them yourself. By not turning them into the LL, and deciding instead to just leave them on the counter in the rental unit, you created the need for the LL to re-key the unit (under the assumption that the keys were not turned in). Again, this seems to be a perfectly valid charge that could easily have been avoided by you.
Since YOU caused the additional damages that were chargeable against the security deposit, it was also appropriate to charge YOUR deposit and NOT your roommate's deposit.
Bottom line here, these deductions were a result of your own actions. Sure, you can try to sue the LL to recover them, but I seriously doubt you'd be successful. And no, the LL won't be able to demand that you pay for their airfare to come out and fight the lawsuit. One assumes the cost of traveling to defend themselves in court if they so choose, so travel and lodging costs would NOT be recoverable.