Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in California

You have a good case against the landlord for one or two reasons. The first reason is the landlord's failure to return your deposit. After 13 years, without a carpet change or painting, it is likely that a court would find that the carpet and blinders have served their entire useful lives. You should not have to pay to replace them, unless you did something extraordinarily bad to them, such as break the blinders. While cat urine is something that might cause a landlord to replace a carpet, your case is different because the landlord would need to replace the carpet, anyway, because of its age. A second consideration is whether the landlord's notice to you, regarding the security deposit, is correct. Many landlords fail to follow the law. For example, the notice must have been sent to you within 21 days of your vacating the house. Also, it needs to show you the receipts and estimates for additional work. If the notice was late or incomplete, it is defective, and you would be entitled to a complete refund of your security deposit. If you want to recover your security deposit, I suggest that you file a case in your local small claims court. Based on your zip code of 95328, the court where you would file your case is in Stanislaus County. Check the court's website at https://www.stanct.org/