Estates at Quarry Lake Pinnacle Living Pinnacle Living/Steadfast Management I received a letter from a collection company with charges for painting and cleaning. AUSTIN Texas

During that time the management company changed multiple times.  The gym that was included in the rent was unavailable for a year and when it reopened it was only open during office hours.  How is anything in this ridiculous paragraph relevant?  The landlord can limit your use of things like a gym, a pool, or other facilities to certain hours in a day.  Not a good start to your complaint.

Three weeks after I moved out I recieved a letter from a collection company stated I owed them $459.  When I called the number I was threatened with damage to my credit and constant collection calls.  I've never had to pay for painting or cleaning when I moved out of an apartment.  It's called normal wear and tear.  I sort of patched this together.  Interesting a landlord uses a collection agency to communicate the itemized listing of deductions.  However, I can see why - it becomes impossible for a landlord to exert leverage on an exiting tenant for additional charges, and it fits the requirement under the law in Texas.

The real question is whether we're really talking about normal wear and tear, because you're correct a landlord cannot charge you for normal wear and tear.  However, a landlord can charge you for excessive wear and tear, or damage.  Excessive can include removing larger holes, or excessive garbage, or prematurely worn out carpet.  So who determines excessive?  In Texas, all the landlord has to do is prove the charges on the itemized listing are fair and that the damages were excessive - usually with pictures.  If they're as efficient with pictures, as they are with utilizing a collection agency, I'd say you have a problem.

They do it because people will just pay rather than fight the injustice.  Injustice?  From whose perspective?  Yours?  How about the landlord's?  Certainly the landlord doesn't think it's an injustice.  Perhaps there were damages that were excessive and not wear and tear.  Should the landlord be able to collect, or should we simply say it's an injustice?

Pay it.  In all likelihood, even if you fight this "injustice" in court, then you will lose.