Hi, Brandy. Thanks for your quick reply. But I really want to try this time. Do you have advice on how to prepare the suit, what evidence to collect?

Keep in mind, I'm not licensed to practice in Virginia and this is for information purposes only. You might want to consult an attorney local in your area for more specific advice.

The evidence you will need will be your testimony versus your roommate's to indicate you had a contract wherein your roommate agreed to clean the kitchen area. It will be up to a judge to decide which person is believable. You'll also need a receipt/invoice from whichever cleaning company you hired to perform the job. The point is, you have to quantify exactly how much it cost to clean the place. You can't do it yourself and make up a number to attribute to the cost. In small claims, the rules of evidence aren't strictly followed but you do need to have some kind of reliable dollar amount for the cleaning cost.

In filing a suit, you'll have to prepare a complaint. In small claims, courts usually have forms you fill out indicating the type of claim you have and a space where you can write out the facts of your case. In your case, it seems you had a contract which was breached by your roommate resulting in your having to pay a cleaning fee. Once the complaint is filed (you'll incur a filing fee), the court will issue a summons and then you can either have a private process server or your local sheriff serve the defendant (which will also cost you $$$).