Security Deposit in Montgomery County? (renter, credit card, houses)

[ellyr]

My question involves landlord-tenant law in the State of: Maryland

Here is my long and rambling story. I was renting a basement in an owner-occupied home in Montgomery County, MD. It seemed like a good idea at the time - it was a basement suite, owner seemed normal, close to work. The crux is this: what I was not thinking about was that this basement suite did not have a private entrance, the windows don't meet legal egress requirements, and are barred from the outside.

I moved in. That, of course, is when the problems started. My landlady didn't quite seem to grasp the concept that although it's her house, her tenants have rights. She would frequently come down into what was allegedly my space without knocking, which was, needless to say, jarring. My things were frequently rearranged. My credit card statements were opened - the LL said it was because we have the same bank, and so she just opened all mail from that bank without thinking. I could forgive that once, but multiple times was a bit irritating. That was also when another tenant pointed out that I had no fire exit and was pretty much SOL in the case of a fire.

I decided to break lease and move out, so she said okay but if she didn't find a tenant by July (my initial move-out date), she'd keep the security deposit, and that I should advertise the room in the meantime to find a replacement tenant.

So here's the thing. Stupid renter that I was, I might not have thought about and realized the lack of a fire exit when I moved in, but I was uncomfortable at the thought of turning a blind eye to the issue in the future. I started to do my research. I found out that Montgomery County law does require a means of emergency exit in a fire, and that tenants renting rooms in owner-occupied houses can call code enforcement if they have concerns about the safety and legality of basement rooms.

So that's exactly what I did.

Code enforcement came, issued an Emergency Field Notice saying that all bedding had to be removed from the basement within 24 hours and the basement could not be used for future sleeping because the window was too high and barred from the outside. This was one month before the move-out date I'd initially told my landlady. I had friends who could take me in, so I went ahead and got out of dodge within a day.

So now we come to the security deposit issue. I could use that money. Can I recover it, even though I:

A) Did admittedly rent the unit in the first place although there was another room available in the house at the time (there wasn't when I moved out).
B) Had already given notice to move out, although I ended up having to move a lot sooner.

I'm a little torn. The LL didn't say anything to me when I was moving out, and I kind of want to let sleeping dogs lie at this point, so she doesn't get it in her head to sue me for the remainder of the lease (although I don't think she'd have much of a case, given that EFN). On the other hand - I rented the place, stupidly, but I didn't realize it was illegal to begin with, and if there *had* been a fire it would have been me roasting. She already got three and a half months rent out of me illegally, and I kind of feel that that's enough.