Deposit issues

My friend recently moved to Barcelona. She moved into a flat with a married couple and another man. The flat had three bedrooms and two bathrooms. Extremely dissatisfied with the living conditions (ie no heat, electricity constantly went out, flatmates were messy) she moved out. She had stayed from the 30th of September 08 to the 2nd of February 09. While she knew she did not give two weeks notice, she did expect to get most of her deposit back. She gave a 300 euro deposit and received 110 euros back. The husband was subletting the flat, so he was in charge of rent. His logic went as follows:

They agreed to a 350 euro a month rent. He told her all bills were included. So the bills were approximately 50 euros a month. However, he charged her for 1/3 of the bills when there were four people living there. He counted himself and his spouse as on person. She was charged for the telephone and television bills when she did not use the telephones or television.

He charged her 75 euros for only giving 7 or 8 days notice, which seems a little expensive, but fair enough.

He then proceeded to calculate the monthly bills. He added up the bills for September (she was only there for one day in Sept), October, November, December and January. It added up to 1099.81 euros. He then showed his calculations. He divided it into thirds (366 euros) even though there were four people living there and then divided that by 5 months (she only lived there four), totaling 73 euros a month. He subtracted 50 euros from that because he felt that 50 euros from the 350 for rent went toward bills, and calculated that she owes him 23 extra euros for 5 months.

He never told her this beforehand, and when she first moved in, he said that rent was 350 euros a month, all bills included. Neither of them wrote anything or signed any documents.

If anything, he did not charge her rent for September, so it is not fair to ask her to pay for the difference in bills for that month.

What are my friend's rights? What can she do about this to get her money back?

I would be very grateful for any answers.

Dear Sir/Madam,

As you write your friend didn't sign any Tenancy agreement. It is going to be very difficult to prove. How did she pay him, in cash or through a bank account (standing order)?

If she paid him in cash then she can forget asking for any funds back. For such a small amount and being unable to prove it she stands a small chance.

Hi there, a friend of mine has had a similar problem, she rented a villa short term for about 5 nights without a contract, she paid a security deposit of 900 pounds but despite many emails from the man we dealt with (were not sure if he is the owner or even if it was his real name) promising to send it back she hasn't gotten it and hasn't received any emails from him for about 6 months. We would just like to know where we stand and what we can do in terms of the law and if the spanish authorities will help us? I cannot get a hold of the man who we gave the deposit... could he be charged with fraud?
What would we need to do to be able to prosecute him? I just need to know if agreements made by email are legal even if the name is not the same as the owners if that is the case. Thank you.