Legal Question in Civil Litigation in California

You have a couple of issues. First of all, California law allows the landlord to use a security deposit for four purposes: (1) default in rent payment; (2) for cleaning the unit when you moved out, but only to make it as clean as when tenant moved in; (3) for repair of damages caused by the tenant or the tenant's guests; and (4) the cost of restoring furniture and personal property, if the apartment was a furnished rental. (Civ. Code, 1950.5.)

The law does not distinguish between a security deposit and a security deposit by any other name: pet deposit; first and last month's rent; tenant deposit, key fee, cleaning fee, etc. The landlord is not allowed to use the security deposit as a liquidated damages penalty for your early termination of the lease, although the landlord would be allowed to obtain damages actually suffered by reason of your early termination. (Which is hard to imagine, in this market.)

Under California law, within 21 calendar days after you moved out, your landlord must either send you a refund or mail or deliver to you an itemized statement that sets forth the deductions and the reasons for the deductions, including the copies of the receipts. (Code of Civ. Proc., sec. 1950.5 subd. (g)(1).) Your landlord has forfeited the right to hold this security deposit, because you vacated on February 28, 2010. Your landlord's failure to follow this law has cost him the right to keep any of the security deposit and he must return the entire deposit to you. (Granberry v. Islay Investments (1995) 9 Cal.4th 738, 745.)