Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in California

Re: Landlord Will Not Refund Surplus Rent

If I understand you correctly, you paid rent from up to and including 11/19; you had an agreement with her that you would change the move outdate to no later than 11/8 and you fully vacated the unit by then. Her argument is that once you pay the rent at the beginning of the rental period then you have "purchased" that full month and are not entitled to a refund.

It would not surprise me that there is no case law or commentary about this unusal situation. Under what I perceive as the circumstances, you gave proper and timely notice that you would not renew the rental after for the 11/19 period and on. She accepted your notice as terminating any future rental agreement beyond 11/19 but then asked you to modify the rental agreement by moving out by 11/8, earlier than your rental agreement provides for.

There appears to be a mutual agreement to teminate the rental by 11/19 and then a separate, different agreement at her request than you move out earlier than legally required. By entering that new agreement she seems to have waived any claim for rent after 11/8 if you were out before then; the new agreement simply covered a period of rental shorter than your normal 30 days and you became entitled to the excess rent when that new agreement was made.

I would first make sure that you have all of your security and clean up fees in hand before further arguing the matter with her.

You can give her this e-mail if you want. Remember, though, we do not have an attorney-client relationship.