Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California
Verbal agreement question
I waited 2 months and did not hear anything reguarding the return of my security deposit. I wrote a letter to my landlord demanding my full security deposit back but my landlord said since did not give written notice, the 21 day deadline he had to return my deposit did not apply. I did not give him a written notice but I did give my landlord verbal notice. Will this hold up in small claims court?
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: Verbal agreement question
The applicable laws speak of written notice. The landlord is probably right. Of course, if you had a fixed term lease (rather than a month-to-month) and it expired, you didn't need to give notice.
As you may know, Civil Code section 1950.5 is the basic law on rental deposits, and subsection (g)(1) is where the refund provisions are found, at least mainly. This in turn refers to notice under CC 1946 or 1946.1, both of which speak of written notice in their opening clauses.
Nevertheless, I think the landlord is being a jerk for not honoring your verbal (oral would be the legal term) notice. Good luck.
Re: Verbal agreement question
I found Civil code section 1950.5 very confusing, but I believe that subdivision (g)(2) the landlord must within 21 days after you have vacated the premises provide you with a notice of the disposition of the security deposit. The requirement for notice of the disposition of your security deposit applies to the landlord inspecting the property and giving the tenant a list of discrepancies the landlord intends to use the security deposit to repaid. To allow the landlord to keep the security deposit simply because the tenant does not seem to be in keeping with the intent of the statute.
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