Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in California
I used to rent a retail space at the Arroyo Center in Rosemead, ca. and gave a security deposit of $7286.40. The property has changed ownerships 3 times since I've been there. I recenty suplet it to another business who left a security deposit of $2519.18. Now we found a new tenant who signed a brand new lease with the current owner, freeing me and my subleasee of any obligations. That is fine, except now the property management says they won't give me my $7286 deposit back because they claim it never showed up in the escrow papers, therefore they never recieved it from the previous owners. They claim they only received the $2519.18 from the subleasee. The current property management shows a security deposit I made of $7,286.40 on a Addemdum To Commerial Lease. They just claim they never recieved it. Is this my fault that during the sell of this strip mall, the current owners never received my deposit?
2 Answers from Attorneys
You should sue the property management company for your security deposit back. They legally owe it to you. It is not your problem that they did not get a good enough deal for the proeperty when they bought it.
If you can prove you made the payment to any of the previous owners, they and the current owners are liable to you for the deposit, less any legally taken deductions. When rental property is sold, it is between the buyer and seller to deal with deposits. The seller can refund them, which then allows the buyer to set and collect their own deposit, or the seller can transfer the deposit to the new buyer. If the seller fails to do one or the other, and the buyer allows that to happen, they wind up both liable to the tenant for the deposit.
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