Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in California

Our landlord is not willing to give us any of our depsit back even after his list of deductions did not total 2000 (deposit total). We asked for receipts for his deductions because we believe he charged us an unreasonable amount for parts for the house. He did not send a list of deductions and receipts until 3 months after I had moved out and said he would only return the deposit if we all hand wrote a letter saying we accept the deductions and our total deposit would be around 650. He charged us items that were in perfect working condition and were in the same condition as when we moved in. However, we did not want to deal with the hassel so, we all agree and he still has not sent our remaining deposit. I have tried to contact him via calling,texting, emailing around 50 times and he responded only once saying have my lawyer contact him in a week to resolve the matter.

He is stating its an owner occupied house and rents it out. He has his mail sent to the house and frequently stopped by with out notice to pick up his mail or check up on the house and would stay on the premise for up to an hour talking about non sense and bothering us constantly.�

One of my roomates did violate our lease agreement and brought a dog in. We talked with her constantly about everything and said we do not want her to keep the dog but would not listen. It caused tension between us all but that did occur during our stay in his rental house. The landlord did have knowledge about the dog during the limited time the dog lived at the house.

He is saying now that because of the materials breach of the lease concerning the dog he is keeping our entire deposit. I have researched this issue meticulously and have not been able to find any proof that his argument is valid. Just wondering is someone can tell me if a materials breach of a lease is grounds to keep a security deposit? thank you so much!


Asked on 1/21/12, 5:32 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

Yes it is grounds, but the deposit can only be retained to the extent of monetary damages from the breach, AND the breach is waived if the landlord knows about it and does not object in most cases. So he has no right to keep deposit money based on it. Time to stop messing around with this jerk and file a Small Claims case against him for the full deposit. He only had 21 days from move-out to give you an itemized list of deductions and pay the balance. He owes you the entire deposit back.

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Answered on 1/21/12, 5:44 pm


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