*305On September 28, 2008, counsel for the plaintiffs sent to the defendants, via overnight mail, a letter regarding the security deposit and advising them of their forwarding address. The defendants, however, the day before, had sent an e-mail to the plaintiffs that contained an accounting of claimed damages and setoffs against the plaintiffs’ security deposit. After applying the plaintiffs’ security deposit to the amount of claimed damages, the defendants’ letter demanded payment of $6778.71 in compensation for their claimed damages. As articulated by the court, “the notable items claimed by [the defendants] as damages or setoffs are the following: $3698.91 in expenses for travel from California to Connecticut to inspect the premises, $941 for rent withheld for the month of March, 2008 . . . $4800 as an additional month’s rent for holding over past August 13,2008, $900 in legal fees and $1025 as costs of various items of physical damage.” At trial, Keith Goldberg admitted that he and his wife, Leigh Ann Goldberg, were not entitled to any of the sum claimed as damages in his accounting sent to the plaintiffs, except for $231.80 in fuel oil expenses. Keith Goldberg, drring his testimony at trial, claimed that his attorney, William Ostemdorf, had advised him to claim these expenses. Ostemdorf, when testifying at trial, denied giving Keith Goldberg such advice. In fact, he testified that he counseled Keith Goldberg that the travel expenses and additional month’s rent were “questionable” claims for damages. The court found that the defendants’ claimed damages were pretextual.