Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in California
Deposits
Question concerning a situation my daughter is in.
Two friends of my daughters signed a 12 month lease. Splitting the deposit of $2500 equaling $1250 ea. One friend moves out after 6 months. My daughter moves in signing a sub-lease for the remaining 4 months. At the time of the signing, there was no agreement signed on the amount of, nor a date set, discussing the deposit arrangement, BUT the two girls (my daughter & the girl moving out) said they would agree on the settlement outside of the contract. Again, no amounts nor dates where set verbally. What rights does my daughter have and what deposit is she responsible for? I would think that the Landlord is responsible for returning the original deposit to the original tenant and then charging my daughter a deposit for the remaining 4 months. If so, should he be returning the full amount back to the original tenant & charging my daughter the full amount? Or should there be something withheld for damages & breaking the 12 mo. lease? And should a smaller amount be charged to my daughter for the remaining 4 mos. or a full $1250 be charged? If someone is available to discuss this over the phone, please call me @ 818-400-3904. This has become a BIG problem. Thank you
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Deposits
I can not response at this time over the phone.
You so not make it clear if your daughter signed a lease with the landlord or just subleased the place from the woman who moved out. Also, did both of the original renters agree to be liable for the other's acts or did they sign separate leases?
What can be said is that the security deposit is not related to how long the person will be there but rather what, within twilce the monthly rent, the landlord is willing to accept as a partial security agalinst the tenant moving out early or not paying the rent. If the landlord has charged your daugher a security deposit, he probably has confirmed that she is a tenant and probably has to return the security deposit to the other woman, less any physical damages or loss of rent he suffered. The court would probably find that the only damage to the landlord from the breach is the amount of rent he in fact could not collect. He can keep enough funds to cover the cost of physical damage and maybe the expenses of re-renting the unit. But he is supposed to give a detail rationale to the former tenant within 21 days of her moving out as to why he is keeping any of the funds from the security deposit and return the rest to her.
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