Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in California

We moved out of our rental in July, We were renting from a agency but once we gave our 30 day notice the owner of the home cancelled their service and gave the property owner our deposit. The deposit should have been returned Aug 4, I sent a demand letter to the property owner on Aug 20, 15 days after we should have received it. I FINALLY got a laundry list of things they had to do to the house, paint, eventhough I lived there for 1.5 years, new garage door openers because we returned the ones they gave us were not the correct ones for that garage door among other things that I don't think I am responsible for. I got a letter from the landlord that made the total time 45 days and she blamed it on the rental agency not giving her the deposit. I want to know if I have a small claims case that I can win, mainly because I live out of state now and it would be costly to sue, but it is my understanding that each person on the lease can sue for the $10,000 small claims limit. I am planning on sending her another letter stating that because she missed the 21 day deadline that she has forfeited her right to deduct anything and needs to refund the deposit in full within 10 days or I will file.


Asked on 9/02/14, 9:09 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Anthony Roach Law Office of Anthony A. Roach

It is not clear how much your security deposit was for. You seem to intend to split your cause of action by having multiple people sue for the same thing, which makes me think that your deposit is substantial. Splitting a cause of action is not a good idea.

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Answered on 9/08/14, 1:38 pm


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