The return of a security deposit in California

An itemization: the amount of each deduction and the basis for it. Not a total, not "cleaning and repairs", but line by line. And where the repair and cleaning deductions come to more than $125 in total, copies of the bills, invoices or receipts, or the details of the work done, have to come with it. It is a total rather than a per-line test, which catches a statement of several smaller charges, and under the figure you can still ask for the same paperwork within 14 days of receiving the statement.

Where the landlord did the work themselves they are expected to describe it and say what they charged for their time, which is checkable in its own way: a figure with no hours and no rate behind it is not a description, and the charge has to be reasonable for the work. Where the deduction is for repairs or cleaning on a recent tenancy, the photographs AB 2801 requires have to come with the statement too, along with a written explanation of what the work cost.

Note the date it arrived and keep the envelope. A late statement is one of the few things in a deposit dispute you can prove from two dates rather than argue about, and it goes at the top of a demand letter.

What it costs the landlord is less tidy than the internet suggests, and the penalty page goes through it: the statute's own extra remedy turns on bad faith, courts have taken a range of views on lateness alone, and this site will not tell you the whole deposit is automatically yours.

The strongest moment in a deposit dispute is before you hand the keys back. Before the tenancy ends your landlord has to tell you in writing that you may ask for an initial inspection, within a reasonable time after notice of termination or before the lease ends. If you ask, the inspection happens at a reasonable time no earlier than 2 weeks before the end, and the landlord then gives you an itemized list of what they intend to deduct, so you have the chance to put it right while putting it right is still cheap. The right does not apply where the tenancy is ending for cause.

Almost nobody asks, which is mostly because almost nobody is told, and the telling is the landlord's job. If you are reading this before you move out, that is the single most useful thing on this page.

The dates, so the deadline is on the record. The deductions you dispute, line by line, which is what normal wear and tear under California law is for. And any unpaid city interest if your unit is rent stabilized in Los Angeles. How to write the letter has the order and the deadline to set.

One thing worth checking before you write it: whether the deposit was lawful in the first place. California's security deposit limit is one month's rent for most tenancies now, and an over-cap deposit is a separate sum to ask for in the same letter.