Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in California

We are (unmarried) joint owners of a single family residence rented in California. Our primary home is in a different county several hours away. During a recent visit to the rental to inspect the work by painters, I saw that the lawn area was now just dirt. Only a few hardy shrubs remained, along with the trees. The remainder of the yard, which was once planted with groundcover and other landscaping plants, is now either weeds or dirt. Tenants were allowed two dogs, but we failed to ask for a pet deposit. Evidence is clearly seen of digging by the dogs. I can document the condition of the landscaping through pictures I took at the beginning of their lease. The lease states Tenants were to maintain landscaping, and Tenants would reimburse Landlord for any work. I paid a landscaper $1,100 for yard cleanup and trimming of the trees. The estimate for replacing the landscaping is $6,500. After I received the estimate and met with the Tenants, I found more damage exists than first seen. Tenants states they maintained the yard. We do not know what damage, if any, is done to the inside of the residence. 1. Could the amount I paid for cleanup be deducted from their security deposit, or would that be included in the small claim action I will file before we do a pre-move inspection when Tenant's lease ends in two months. 2. Must the small claims action be filed as joint tenants? I paid for the yard cleanup and original landscaping. If any damage exists to the interior which causes our damages to exceed $10,000, we will need an attorney to handled this matter.


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

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

You can deduct money from the security deposit after the move out, provided that you follow the guidelines in Civil Code section 1950.5. You can read the current version here: http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/displaycode?section=civ&group=01001-02000&file=1940-1954.1

If the amount of damage exceeds the security deposit, you can deduct and sue for bad faith waste, but at this point it is not certain what your damages are or how much they will be. I suggest waiting until you have a chance to inspect the property before you file any lawsuit or make a decision.

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Answered on 9/10/14, 7:33 am


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