Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in California

Re: moveout deposit

A landlord may properly charge a cleaning fee if the apartment is not left in as clean a condition as when you moved in. The fee must be reasonable, and must be documented by a copy of an invoice from a vendor providing the service, or if the landlord cleaned it himself or herself, then a written statement itemizing the time spent and a reasonable hourly rate charged. I am assuming the landlord did not provide an invoice nor a statement. Do you have the ability to document the condition of the apartment when you moved out - i.e., pictures. This is going to boil down to who does a judge believe, and if you or your landlord has pictures to back up your respective claims, that party will probably win. Otherwise, its a he-said, she-said issue and the judge is going to rule in favor of whom he believes to be more truthful. Is it a headache - in my opinion yes, but its up to your finances to decide if a couple of weekdays away from work is worth $150 to you. You will need a half a day to go to court and file the action, and another half a day to attend a trial (maybe more depending upon how busy the court's calendar is). There is also still the chance you will lose and have wasted that time. Its not hard, however, to file a small claims action.

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