Damage to my apartment building's "party room", also a common room

[Eisnel]

Summary:

After renting the common room ("party room") at my apartment building, the landlord discovered damaged furniture and is charging me (a significant amount, more than the security deposit covered). They gave me a key and permission to use the room all evening, although during the day it serves as a common room, open to all tenants and unmonitored by apartment staff. This is in Minnesota.

Details:

No one in my party even remembers using the furniture that was damaged, and we're fairly confident that we didn't break it. I realize that this alone is no defense, because "strict liability" means that I am liable for damaged property that I'm responsible for even if I wasn't personally at fault. The catch is that the damage could have occurred before the property became my responsibility; read on.

When I picked up the key to the room in the late afternoon, the only staff member on duty was surprised to learn that the room had been reserved for that day. His surprise suggested that they normally know ahead of time, but he hadn't checked the book for that day. He gave us the key, showed us into the room, but only concentrated on the kitchen area (not where the damage was found). A few minutes later we came back carrying stuff for our party, and found that he had locked a few kitchen cabinets that contain staff materials, and left a note on the kitchen counter with cleaning instructions.

At no time did the staff member ask us to look for preexisting damages (sadly we didn't think of that either), and we didn't see him inspect the room (although we can't account for what he did while we went for our supplies; but since he was surprised to learn the room was being rented, I am certain he had no reason inspect the room before we first approached him). Sadly, it would be the easiest thing in the world for him to claim that he did, or to claim that the damage was obvious (we disagree). I imagine that this is why most such inspections are done with both parties involved, and signed off on by both. But in this case they have no joint inspection process (renting the common room is much more informal than renting an apartment there, even though there is a simple contract involved).

We rented this room Saturday evening. When they approached me about the damage on Monday, they told me that the furniture in question was not damaged as of Friday when they locked the room (this further leads me to believe that the staff member did not inspect the room on Saturday, because then they would have told me that it was undamaged on Saturday as of the time I received the key). It's important to note that they open the common room every day except Sunday, so the room was open to all tenants during the day on Saturday, and we picked up the key in the late afternoon.

I signed a standard form for the room (I'm working on acquiring it), which makes me liable for damages. I imagine this is the real kicker. The apartment's representative told me that the contract makes me responsible for any damage to the room. I pointed out that I didn't receive the key until late in the afternoon and that the room was open to all (and certainly out of my control) during the day. Her response is troubling, she said that by signing the contract I became responsible for that room on Saturday, and it didn't seem to matter that they opened the room as an unsupervised common room for most of the day.

Furthermore, when I suggested that the damage may have occurred during the day, they said I could only be freed from responsibility if I could find the anonymous tenant who had damaged the room. But before I got the key and took possession of the room, I was not monitoring that room, and I feel that it was not my responsibility to protect a room that they deemed a "common room"; a room that they opened to all tenants that morning, before I was even awake. I also feel that it's not my responsibility to investigate damages to a room during the time it was in their control, not mine.

While I feel that this isn't entirely fair, do I have a leg to stand on in the legal sense? The two things I have in my favor are: 1. The room was open to the public before I got the key, and 2. There was no joint inspection of the room when I got the key. Are either of those facts significant enought to beat the landlord's insistence that I'm responsible for this damage? Or will the contract I signed damn me regardless of those points? How would I go about challenging this, or is it even worth it to try?

Important note: I really don't want to go to court over this matter, especially if I have little chance of winning. I actually like this apartment building, and taking legal action against my landlord will probably ensure that they don't renew my lease. If I do have a solid leg to stand on, then I'd like to use that as leverage to split the cost of the damages with my landlord. I'm not entirely unreasonable, and I can't completely discount the possibility that someone in my party caused the damage and didn't tell me. But I think it's unfair that the landlord not even consider the possibility that it was damaged beforehand, so I think splitting the cost with me would be a fair deal.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts you might have.

(Note: I've posted another forum question that has to do with the amount of the damages. Unlike this, that question assumes that I grudgingly accept responsibility and pay damages. Any help with that would be appreciated as well, the post is called "Cost to replace landlord's property when exact replacement is unavailable").

You can dispute that you caused the damage and he will have to prove it; his case is certainly not a sure thing. Feel free to fight it. You may very well win.