NAL, but always sue, and sue for more than you are owed. Court is a negotiation and judges do not take kindly to landlords trying to pull a fast one and landing in their court.

I have done this myself to a scammy corporate landlord and they settled out of court after a barrage of threatening letters, subsequent “you sued the wrong party”, and “we’re willing to drop what we were going to charge you if you drop this case” letters. I ended up about $400 up including court costs for filing and serving, just for ignoring letters.

Private landlords, who I’ve also sued, are much more naively willing to go in front of a judge. If you have any case at all, the judge is likely to eat the landlord alive- unless you are a deadbeat tenant you will walk out of court probably with 3x damages.