Sued by Middletown 5 years later

I moved out of a middletown property in 2019, and am being sued by them more than 5 years later for alleged damages. the statue of limitations is 7 years, so they waited until time was running out to take legal action. When I lived in their apartment, they charged me a “non refundable redecoration fee” instead of a security deposit, and are trying to use that as the reason they do not have to abide by indiana security deposit laws. they admitted in an agreement with the Indiana attorney general that this fee was unlawful. they have not changed since this investigation, and are now suing me and my former roommates for several thousand dollars. we moved out months prior to our lease ending, we filled out paperwork at their office with our forwarding address, and continued to pay rent until our move out month. they changed our door locks before noon on our move out day, their office closed early so we could not contact them for a walk through, they did not send an itemized deduction within 45 days required by indiana security deposit law, and justified it by saying we didn’t have any tenant rights due to them not charging us an official security deposit. while living in the apartment, they constantly scheduled showings where strangers walked through our space. they would schedule several a week, and would not reschedule even when I just got out of the hospital and had a newborn baby. they would pressure tenants to resign a lease to stop the showings, but then they would start just a month or two later because “they have to have a booked school year for the following year.” so, they would pressure tenants to resign 8-9 months prior to their 11 month lease ending. Middletown has caused me and my family so much stress, I can only hope others learn from these stories and stay far away from Middletown Property or any other alias they decide to use.