Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in California

My security deposit is being withheld for reasons I do not feel are fair. Also the landlord wants to charge us a $45.00 per day late fee for recieving or 30 noticew late. The only reason it was late is because one of HIS OTHER TENANTS broke into the locked outgoing mail box and STOLE all of the mail in the box, my 30 notice included. I reported the theft to the Postal authorities and have and email and reference number to prove this. Can he do that? Also when we moved in the piece that held up the verticle blinds in the living room was very old plastic and was cracking and going to eventually come down; we removed the blinds and stored them nicely during or stay and when we moved out we placed them infront of that window but couldnt rehang them because the broken fastener. We had a infant and didnt want to risk them coming down on him, but now he wants to charge us for a complete new set of blinds, even though when we moved in the blinds aside from the fasteners breaking, were old and not very clean at all. Please help


Asked on 3/19/11, 3:09 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
David Gibbs The Gibbs Law Firm, APC

I'm not clear on what you mean by the landlord receiving the 30 day notice late. I assume you mean that you gave 30 days notice of your intent to terminate your tenancy, and he did not receive it. The $45 per diem is probably not a late fee, but rather is the daily rental value of the property. If you move before the 30 days are up in a 30 day notice, then the landlord can generally charge you daily rental value for the days between when you move and when the 30 day notice expires. He cannot charge a traditional "late fee" for that time. Your problem is that the notice should have been either personally served on the landlord, or should have been mailed to him by U.S.P.S.. It sounds like you put it in the outbound mailbox, but a better practice would have been to take it to the post office and obtain proof of mailing so you had a date on which you can prove you mailed it. Now, it will be a question for the judge to decide - does he believe you mailed it, or does he believe the landlord who says he didn't receive it. The report of theft will help for sure.

The blinds issue is again one that a judge will probably have to decide. You'll have to sue the landlord for recovery of the portion of the security deposit withheld if he does not return it. Hopefully you have pictures of the blinds and/or the fastner. One question the judge may ask is why did not you not report that to the landlord when you first discovered the problem and ask that it be corrected. That would have avoided any question about the security deposit. You may or may not prevail on this point.

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Answered on 3/29/11, 10:23 am


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