Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in California

my wife and i were attempting to rent a house we signed a lease but never moved in we found out that the house was still in escrow and not owned by the landlord but the main reason was due to the fact that i lost my job and we felt that it would not be okay to move in and take a chance of being in default on the rent which we explained to the landlord and we requested our security deposit back which we were told would be no problem but now we are getting the runaround do we have any legal recourse


Asked on 7/15/11, 6:47 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
George Shers Law Offices of Georges H. Shers

If the person you gave the security deposit to was not at that time the actual owner of the property they had no legal right to rent the property to you and were committing fraud.write them a polite but firm letter that that was the case, thus there was no binding contract, they would lose any lawsuit you would file and have to pay your costs plus damages which might include attorney fees, they have also promised to return the money and you are now charging interest on that money, and if you do not get the money within 7 calendar days you will file suit. Point out you have discussed the matter with an attorney and he said yo might be able to sue under the section requiring return of the security deposit within 21 days or double the deposit is awardable plus actual damages. You would probably sue in Small Claims court

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Answered on 7/16/11, 6:34 am


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