Normal wear and tear under California law

By los-angeles.com EditorialEdited by Dolev NehoraiLast updated October 23, 2026Civil Code 1950.5 and the city's deposit interest ordinance

Four things come out of a deposit, and each one has to be reasonably necessary: unpaid rent, cleaning to get the unit back to the level of cleanliness it was in when you moved in, repairing damage you caused beyond ordinary wear and tear, and restoring or replacing personal property where your rental agreement says so. Ordinary wear and tear is not deductible, the cleaning test is how clean it was when you got it rather than how clean the landlord would like it to be, and the charges themselves for labor, materials and professional cleaning have to be reasonable and may not cover conditions that were already there.

The distinction that decides most disputes is wear against damage. Wear is what happens to a place because somebody lived in it: faded paint, worn carpet in the traffic path, small nail holes, grout that has aged. Damage is something that happened to it: a hole in a door, a cracked worktop, a stain that goes through the carpet backing. The California security deposit checker reads your own description of each charge and flags the ones that look weak, and the LA deposit interest calculator adds what the city owes on the deposit itself.

On this page

The purposes a deposit may be used for
Painting, carpet, and the age of the thing
The cleaning charge, which is the most common one
What to do when you disagree
Common questions

The purposes a deposit may be used for

Four, and each one has to be reasonably necessary. Unpaid rent. Cleaning, to the level of cleanliness the unit was in when the tenancy started. Repairing damage you caused beyond ordinary wear. And restoring or replacing personal property, which only comes out of a deposit where your rental agreement says it may. Anything on a statement that is not one of those four is worth asking about, and so is a charge for one of them that was not reasonably necessary.

What is not on the list is upgrading. A landlord repainting before a new tenant moves in, or replacing a carpet that had reached the end of its life, is improving their own asset on a schedule they would have followed anyway. The question is not whether they spent the money, it is whether your tenancy caused the need. The same answer covers a condition that was already there when you arrived: a charge may not reach a preexisting condition, and the charges for labor, materials and professional cleaning have to be reasonable in themselves.

Painting, carpet, and the age of the thing

Paint and carpet are where most of the money is, and both turn on age. A coat of paint and a carpet have a useful life, and a landlord charging the full cost of replacing something most of the way through its life is charging you for their depreciation as well as your damage.

Raising that is reasonable and often effective, because the answer involves the landlord saying how old the item was and what they paid. Ordinary fading and scuffing is wear in any case; a wall that needs work because of what happened to it is not.

The cleaning charge, which is the most common one

The test is comparative, not absolute. The standard is how clean the unit was when you got it, so a flat cleaning fee applied to every tenant regardless of condition is charging you against a standard the statute does not use. If the unit was handed to you with a dirty oven, returning it with a dirty oven is not a deduction.

This is the charge where move-in evidence earns its keep. Photographs from the day you arrived settle it quickly, which is part of why the state now requires the landlord to take move-in and move-out photographs for newer tenancies.

California Security Deposit Laws, and What You May Be Owed

California's security deposit rules in plain English, with a checker that reviews what was deducted from a specific deposit and estimates the LA deposit interest an RSO unit earns.

What to do when you disagree

Write it down per line rather than as a general objection: this charge is ordinary wear, this one has no receipt, this one is cleaning to a standard above what I was given. A statement answered line by line is much harder to defend than one answered with "I dispute the deductions", and it is also the form a small claims court finds easiest to read. The demand letter page has the shape of it, and the 21 day rule has the dates that go at the top.

Common questions

What counts as normal wear and tear in California?

The deterioration that comes from ordinary, reasonable use: faded or lightly scuffed paint, carpet worn in the places people walk, small nail holes from hanging pictures, aging grout and fittings. It is not deductible from a deposit. Damage is something beyond that, caused by an event rather than by time and use.

Can my landlord charge me for repainting in California?

Not for ordinary fading or scuffing from living there, which is wear. They can charge for painting needed because of something beyond that, and the age of the previous paint matters: charging the whole cost of repainting a unit last painted many tenancies ago is charging you for their maintenance schedule.

Can a landlord charge for carpet replacement in California?

For damage, yes, but not for the carpet's own age. A carpet has a useful life, and a landlord may recover what your tenancy cost them rather than the price of a new carpet where the old one was near the end anyway. Ask how old it was and what the replacement cost.

Can they charge a cleaning fee if the lease says so?

A lease term does not override the statute. The standard is the level of cleanliness at the start of the tenancy, so a non-refundable cleaning fee or an automatic charge regardless of condition is outside it. What the lease says may matter to the argument, but it does not settle it.

Related guides

LA deposit interest: the money most tenants never get backLandlords of rent stabilized units in the City of LA owe annual interest on the security deposit. Work out what yours comes to, year by year.
The return of a security deposit in CaliforniaA California landlord has 21 days to return the deposit or send an itemized statement. When the clock starts, what the statement has to contain, and late returns.
AB 2801: the photo rule that can sink a deductionAB 2801 requires California landlords to photograph the unit at move-out and after repairs, and to send those photos with the itemized statement. The dates it phased in on.
How to get your deposit back: the demand letterWhat to put in a California security deposit demand letter, in what order, and what to do when the deadline you set passes. Free, with no paid template.
California's security deposit limit, and the small-landlord exceptionSince July 2024 a California deposit is capped at one month's rent, with an exception for small landlords that does not apply to servicemembers.
The penalty for not returning a security depositCalifornia lets a court award up to twice the deposit on top of the money where it finds bad faith. What that means, and what a late statement alone does not mean.

The rules on this page were last checked by a person on October 23, 2026