what's my chance to win this Landlord/tenant case

we moved out of this apartment in January 2006, and then our lease ended on 01/31/2006. On 12/21/2005, 10:36 am, I called Rental Office, I clearly stated that “I have a month by month lease and I will move out by the end of January.” I specifically asked “what should I do about the moving, do I need to write anything?” The person answered my phone said that I needn’t do anything, no writing. She told me that the staff of rental office will drop me a form about moving.

Then I waited and waited, but no form appearing at my door. On 1/03/2006 9:45 am, I called the rental office again, but the office closed to celebrate the New Year’s Day. I waited again, still nothing appeared. On 1/09/2006 3:22 pm, I called again, asking about the form. This time another woman told me I need to write a notice about moving. She didn’t mention it should be a 30 day notice, even though she heard our move out date is the end of January and she knew the date on that day was 1/9/2006.

I wrote a notice about moving according to what she told me. I honestly put 1/10/2006 on the notice because I called twice and the apartment management staff firstly told me I needn’t write anything, and the second time, they didn’t tell me it should be a 30 day notice.

Even after they received my notice, they didn’t contact me to tell me that my notice was invalid. As a result, as tenants who totally trusted this management, we cleaned the apartment very well. During the final inspection, we returned all the keys and washing machine card, and the man inspected our apartment told us the only problem he found was a little grease on the stove, and we would be deducted only a little from security deposit. The amount should be less than $40, we remember.

Now the apartment refused to return all of our security deposit ($700) because of the date (1/10/06) on our notice is shorter than 30 day (then end of lease is 1/31/2006). This makes us feel that we are treated unfairly on this matter. We even think we were cheated on this matter. When tenants call the rental office, it is the apartment management staff’s responsibility to tell the true, correct information to tenants, especially when it’s about the security deposit. In our case, we were told wrong information at the beginning. It was a mistake made by the apartment management staff. We are the victim.

There is 30 day written notice requirement on the lease, but I was too busy to check the lease at that time. And the ownership of this apartment changed, I thought I would get most accurate information about what to do for the moving by calling them. So I called, but the result was so bad.

I have cell phone statements to show the actual date and time I called them, but I didn't record the conversation for sure. So what's my chance to win this case.