patrick.net

lol

You will definitely win if you fight it in CA. I had a similar situation in 1999 or so and the judge simply berated my landlord (the former mayor of Menlo Park) and I won.

The landlord has 21 days to explain or refund, and you're saying the landlord did neither, so he loses automatically.

But how to do small claims from out of state? I don't know.

What a bastard! He probably knew you were going out of state and took advantage of that by stealing your money.
Check with the California DRE. If he is a realtor you might have more options.
Hope you get him.

Did you give the landlord your forwarding address?

Thanks everyone for the quick replys
Yes he has new address
All my mail is forwarded
I have sent him emails confirming he had address
He said check would be sent, etc

This site is helpful
http://www.caltenantlaw.com/Deposit.htm

Learn your rights - and sue the mofo in small claims: http://www.dca.ca.gov/publications/landlordbook/catenant.pdf

We rented for 5.5years in the same place - we traveled 2800 miles from Washington DC to find our our landlord was, wait for it, a LANDLORD'S RIGHTS LAWYER. Urgh. More depressing was that several neighbors greeted us the first week with the news that he had sued or threatened many of them for various reasons in the past 10 years since he bought the home.

It was a nice house, a fair price and my business got busy and we had kids...so life got complicated otherwise we would've moved earlier, but we lasted thru 5.5 years of hell with this guy. Too long to get into....

Anyhow, knowing what a bitch this guy was, upon move out, we did an exhaustive clean up - leaving it MUCH better than the day we moved in. He wife did the walk thru and said everything looked good so we figured we'd get our entire deposit back. We didn't - we got half back - and when I asked why I was told (paraphrasing):

"I will gladly send you back the balance of your deposit then I'll sue you in state court". I'd have to hire a lawyer to fend this lawyer prick off so I decided it came to $20 a month in the 65 months we lived there and to just leave it be and attend to our busy lives.

I got a nice measure of revenge, however, from the tenant after us. Apparently said lawyer may have gotten poorer or more nutz post-2008 recession and stole ALL of the follow up tenants deposit from their 2 years stay there. A former friendly neighbor put us in touch with one another and my story of woe corroborated with his.

Lucky guy - his Dad is a Real Estate Attorney in Portland, OR and tried his case at Mediation and won 2x his deposit monies + legal costs. My feedback was important in nailing the prick as it dovetailed with some of the same dirty tricks played on the newer tenant showing willful intent

So, although I never got our deposit back, I was instrumental is seeing a prick get his just desserts. It was quite satisfying.

Take him to small claims in CA. CA law states that if he does not return you your deposit, he owes you your deposit and 2 month rent on top of it. Plus additional expenses related to filing. This is a standard procedure here. So if he didn't return your deposit, he owes you a lot of money and law is on your side.

That landlord really screwed up.

You will most likely prevail in small claims court. Landlord HAS to give you detailed description of issue discovered and how much money he spent to fix it. He can't charge you more then that. Unfortunately this means a trip for you back to the small claims court here.

I always lose my deposit. But that's because I throw a big party the night I leave.

Haha. Just kidding.

I know renter's law in my area allows them to gobble up $20 of the deposit per month of occupancy for maintenance and "carpet cleaning." So my $400 deposit was gone after 20 months living there.

Same thing happened to me with a landlord. I did not bother taking him to the small claims court, below is what I did.

Bought some Skunk Essense.

Got back into house, opened up some electrical sockets, and used a syringe to spray the essense in the wall cavity, also sprayed the essense behind kitchen cabinets.

I can guarantee, that the house will never be rented again this century.

I also called him up from another country to say: Congratulations, you left me with a bad taste, I left you with a bad smell, I guess were now even!!

I can only imagine he deeply regrets screwing me for an extra $700.

rfsanders says

I always lose my deposit. But that's because I throw a big party the night I leave.

Haha. Just kidding.

I know renter's law in my area allows them to gobble up $20 of the deposit per month of occupancy for maintenance and "carpet cleaning." So my $400 deposit was gone after 20 months living there.

What area is that?

I would hire an attorney in SF to write the landlord a letter threatening to sue him. It will cost you $300-$400, but you'd have a very high chance of getting your deposit back.

That's what I would do. Good luck.

Aunt Mildred says

lol

To just laugh about this says everything about you to me.

You will win your case but if you use a Attorney in that state to fight for you your reward or most of it will end up in his pocket.If you attend and have to drive or fly there you must clame this as part of your suing him so you are not out of pocket.

Because the landlord didn't write a security deposit refund letter within the 21 days specifying what he did with the deposit money, the OP wins by default.

I guess you have called or written to your landlord, but have gotten no where. As mentioned above, you should explain your situation to a RE attorney. Pay him/her $300 to write a letter to the landlord. You have a good chance of getting your deposit back. It's a small gamble indeed.

Why go through a lawyer when you can just file a court claim and get the money back anyway?

This is a slam dunk. The land lord will owe you interest as well (in CA). Just take him to small claims, and get your money back.

Thank you everyone...Excellent feedback and insight...we are preparing the docs and will schedule a trip as soon as we can...I will let us know how this gets resolved...

francophile100 says

Getting a judgment is easy in comparison to getting the $$ after the judgment.

True, but it's kind of fun to hire the sheriff to go physically take their property.

francophile100 says

Getting a judgment is easy in comparison to getting the $$ after the judgment.

That's a good point. My mother has been there over a hit and run. She got the judgment but her getting the money that was awarded her? That was the real joke.

Reader says

francophile100 says

Getting a judgment is easy in comparison to getting the $$ after the judgment.

That's a good point. My mother has been there over a hit and run. She got the judgment but her getting the money that was awarded her? That was the real joke.

Depending on the state and the situation, sometimes you can sit on these judgments, making sure to timely renew when necessary, and eventually the debtor may need to buy a house or refi a loan or get a security clearance or something that will motivate them (i.e., force them) to pay off the judgment to get it off their record.

Obligatory:

Hire apocolypsefuck to represent you, the $ you receive will be peppered with the landlord's blood. It'll be worth it.