Is this apartment company being fair to college students?

For my Junior year in college I lived in an apartment complex near my university (The Grove, for anyone who has heard of it). Anyway a few months after several of my friends and I moved out, we received extremely large fees (they did not charge a deposit). When inquiring about these abnormally high fees the complex managers seemed to be be very spotty on what and why the charges were so high. Some examples are $100 for a smoke detector that was simply taken down (no damaged... just removed), $100 for leaving food in the fridge, $1200 to recarpet a living room (which was previously used when first moved in), ect. Do we have any say in this? What steps should my friends and I take? Seems a little unfair. Thanks for all responses!