Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Re: Urgent - Lease Agreements

Unfortunately the answer is no to most of your questions. Taking possession isn't necessary to make the lease effective and binding, nor is there a three-day cooling-off or rescission period.

The best news is that the landlord's damages at this point are pretty minimal; he has to take reasonable steps to re-rent to mitigate his damages, and must return any portion of your deposit that doesn't represent his true damages (whoich would be the added vacant time plus costs of re-advertising and a few other items.

Finally, landlords don't have any obligation to replace carpets, paint, landscape, removel, etc. to any set level or on any particular schedule. It's a market-driven decision. Their obligation is limited to things like operating plumbing, safe doors and windows, weather-tight structure, deadbolt locks, vermin-free sanitation, and a few other such items.

I haven't done landlord-tenant work in years, and there may be some new twists. By the way, LawGuru has a separate category for landlord-tenant and you might get a more up-to-date opinion if you re-asked your question under that category.