Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in California

Re: 2x limit on security deposit

If I am reading your post correctly, they did not violate the law. A landlord cannot charge as a security deposit more than the equivalent of two month's rent. Your first month's rent is due and payable before you move in, and has nothing to do with the security deposit. Deduct $950 for the first month's rent, and you paid a security deposit of $1,100. Frankly, with a pet, that's a pretty good deal as most landlords I know would have charged you $1,900 for a security deposit. Even if you deduct the $600 of credits from the first month's rent (and not from the security deposit), you still only paid a security deposit of $1,700 which, again, is not more than the amount he is legally allowed to charge. The real question here is why would you sign a lease if you felt that you were being screwed? I can only assume that nobody forced you to sign that lease and move into that particular property.

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