AB 2801: the photo rule that can sink a deduction

April 1, 2025 is the first. From then a landlord has to photograph the unit twice for any repair or cleaning they are charging for: once within a reasonable time after getting the unit back and before that work, and again after the work is finished. Two sets, not one, and the before set is the one that shows what was actually there. That reaches any move-out from that date, whenever the tenancy began.

July 1, 2025 is the second. Tenancies beginning on or after it also need photographs taken at the start. That half builds up over time, because it only applies to tenancies that started after the date.

It does not automatically void the deduction, and nobody should tell you it does. What it does is remove the landlord's evidence and put them outside a requirement the statute now imposes, which is a strong position to write from: they are charging you for damage they were required to photograph and did not. A photograph of the finished work on its own has the same problem, because the rule asks for one from before it. Combined with missing paperwork on the same statement, a deduction is in real trouble.

And it cuts the other way if you have your own photographs. The cleaning standard is the level of cleanliness at move-in, so your own move-in pictures are often the fastest way to end an argument about wear and tear.

Repairs and cleaning, which is where photographs would show something. A deduction for unpaid rent is an arithmetic question about a ledger and does not need a picture of a wall.

Where the documentation is required, the photographs are supposed to come with the itemized statement rather than be kept on file somewhere, along with a written explanation of what the repairs or cleaning cost. That is what makes this checkable from your side. If the statement arrived with nothing attached, ask in writing for the photographs and the cost explanation the statute requires, and keep the reply.

The deposit statute was amended again with effect from January 1, 2026, which renumbered its subdivisions. The photograph requirements and both of these dates were read off the amended text by a landlord-tenant attorney on October 23, 2026, and the subdivision numbers this cluster cites are theirs: the photographs sit at section 1950.5(g), and the requirement that they travel with the statement at (h)(2)(D). That date is under every figure on this page.