Charline Bess put down a security deposit on a Norfolk apartment in 2005, but she never moved in.

“When I finally saw it, I just didn't like it,” she said.

Getting her security deposit back became a personal obsession.

“I was angry that these people took my money and I didn't think that was ok,” she said. “I went to every department in the state of Virginia because I was that upset.”

After weeks of endless phone calls, Bess found the Virginia Office of Consumer Affairs in Richmond, which tried to resolve the dispute with Great Atlantic, the leasing agent. 

When that failed, the office sent her down another path.

Bess says the people she called referred her to other places, leading her down a path toward resolution.

The Office of Consumer Affairs used to handle landlord-tenant disputes, even assigning a case worker to tenants for free. That’s not the case any longer.

At the start of 2007 the agency to abolished the rental advocacy department.

Another setback for renters took effect in July. 

Tenants now face paying thousands of dollars to appeal a dispute they lose in general district court.

Just last year, that cost was $54.00.

“The judge can set the bond at up to a year's worth of rent. Well, normally, the people that legal aid offices serve do not have the kind of money to do that,” explains Jim Naggles with the Virginia Poverty Law Center.

The change came when lawmakers passed a bill killing a process called removal. It easily allowed a plaintiff to appeal to circuit court without paying a hefty appeal bond.

While the new law makes an exception for indigent clients, it doesn’t in rental disputes.

“Well, if you don't have that money, you could be evicted,” Naggles warns.  “The judge gives his finding, his judgment, and you have to get out.”

There is help for tenants who feel intimidated by the legal process, but few know where to look.

“One of our favorite sayings is we've been in business since 1990 and we don't have a line out our door,” says Amanda Burbage.

She works at the Community Mediation Center of Southeastern Virginia. It’s mission is to resolve differences to avoid costly and lengthy court battles. It's available to anyone in Hampton Roads.

“We get tenants, landlords, all kinds of people that are at their wit's end and really don't know what to do,” Burbage notes.

For less than $50, they will referee confrontations between tenants and landlords -- sometimes at the request of the courts.

Mediation has a 98 percent satisfaction rate.  The catch is both parties have to be willing.

Charline Bess didn’t have to pursue mediation. She sued Great Atlantic, got her money back in the mail and the case was dropped.

“Yes it was worth it.  It was my $200. You got an extra $200 to give away?”