Tenant / Landlord Issues, Need legal advice for MA?

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So this may be lengthy. Basically I need to know what the MA law is for security deposits? I was living in an apartment with a tenancy at will contract. Our landlord voided her own rental agreement we signed by taking 6 months to fix a front door, along with various other issues (i.e. loss of heat for a day here and there in the winter, never shoveling out snow by any entries or exits (she listed we were supposed to do this, but its her property (not sure?)), not having hot water for 4 days in April, bug infestation, mouse infestation, electrical not up to code (utility/breaker was inside our apartment - for all 3 apartments)). We did not give her thirty days notice because of this (I don't know if that was okay or not), meanwhile she had listed we give her 60 days in the contract (which she voided). We terminated our tenancy on June 1, 2012, but we did not receive our security deposit until Wednesday, July 11, 2012. I thought by law in MA, you were supposed to receive the deposit within 30 days of tenancy termination? She sent along a list of charges, a lot of which did not make any sense. For example, charging us for painting 2 walls, cleaning the carpets, and petty things such as saying we stained the carpet (where I cleaned it three times before I left, carpet was 11 years old when we moved in and we lived there for almost 2 years), she commented that we left the stove knobs greasy, that the blind in the bathroom was dusty and that we removed items from the apartment (some which are shown in original photographs as already missing before we moved in). We did do a final walk through, where she said that the apartment was fine, but then she sent us an entire list (examples above, 3 weeks later) saying she couldn't see well (walk through was at night) and didn't realize all the "mess". I regret that I did not take photographs afterwards because I thought that this woman was generally very nice and we were quiet tenants who were always clean and paid our rent every month on the first. I have talked to the other tenants and they are even willing to write me up a statement saying so. Our security deposit was for $975 dollars, she sent us back $325, charging us a trash fee (is this legal? it was her own trash fee, not an actual receipt with trash company - we paid $120 every 6 months - seems high), one weeks rent (since we didn't give 30 days notice. But then she charged us a $265 dollar cleaning fee (which there were no receipts from any company documenting this) and a $63 dollar supplies fee (including painting supplies and things that were "missing" from the apartment). I want to know if it sounds like we have a good case to bring to court. I've never had to do this before and I'm terrified. We just sent her a legal letter, after speaking with a lawyer, asking for our full deposit back, because we received it after 30 days of terminating our tenancy, on Wednesday, July 11, 2012. Is this right? She wrote us back an email claiming that she had until the second week of July because we hadn't told her until May 7th that we were moving out, but I thought it went by when you terminated your tenancy - regardless of when you told her? Please Help! I don't know what to do and I feel like this woman is trying to take me for a ride and I certainly don't want to have someone else go through this. Do you think its worth it for small claims? If so, do you think I would get in any trouble for not giving 30 days and I know that the fact that I don't have pictures isn't helpful. I did clean the apartment with my partner for three days in a row and vacated the apartment 2 days before June 1st, 2012, but she never contacted me to come back to reclean anything. I'm a very easy going individual and this woman never gave us any problems beforehand. I do have before pictures and pictures from when I lived there.

[motega]

She has to MAIL the accounting of your security deposit within 30 days. That does not mean you have to actually receive it within 30 days.

The 30 day clock starts when you surrender possession of the apartment (i.e. turn in the keys), NOT when you give your notice.

You can ask for receipts and then decide if you want to pursue legal action. The judge may side with you in regard to excessive charges. But you do not have a case based on the fact that you received your security deposit a few days after then 30 day time frame.