Legal reviewer
Michele M. Charbonneau
Partner, Brown & Charbonneau, LLP, Irvine, California
Michele M. Charbonneau is an attorney licensed by the State Bar of California, license number 155609, and a partner at Brown & Charbonneau, LLP in Irvine. She received her J.D. from Western State University College of Law in 1991.
On los-angeles.com, Ms. Charbonneau reviewed the security deposit checker: what a landlord may demand and what counts toward that limit, the 21 day return and the itemized statement, the documentation a deduction has to come with, the photographs required since 2025, the bad faith remedy, what happens to a deposit when the property is sold, and the City of Los Angeles deposit interest. On October 23, 2026 she returned corrections against the current text of Civil Code section 1950.5, which was re-lettered that January, and they were applied before her name appeared on any page.
What this reviewer covers
Security deposits under California Civil Code section 1950.5 and the City of Los Angeles deposit interest ordinance: the cap and what counts toward it, the 21 day return and its itemized statement, the documentation and photographs a deduction has to come with, the bad faith remedy, the deposit on a sale of the property, and which units the city's annual interest reaches.
Everything else on the site is written and checked by the editorial team, on the terms set out in our editorial standards. A legal review checks accuracy. It does not make this site a law firm, and nothing here is legal advice.