21 Day Rule and Estimates

[ebbrauer]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? CA

Please see my post submitted today, once it is approved of course.

This post is an illusion.

 

[justalayman]

I presume you are referring to the requirement to return any unclaimed deposit to a tenant within 21 days after they vacate.

http://www.dca.ca.gov/publications/landlordbook/sec-deposit.shtml

Under California law, 21 calendar days or less after you move, your landlord must either:

Send you a full refund of your security deposit, or
Mail or personally deliver to you an itemized statement that lists the amounts of any deductions from your security deposit and the reasons for the deductions, together with a refund of any amounts not deducted.218

I like this one better:


http://www.dca.ca.gov/publications/landlordbook/catenant.pdf

 

[ebbrauer]

State - CA

I am going to try this again. I hope the content of the message survives.

I left my last rental on 11/3. The landlord\agency refunded $1900 within 21 days and retain $1000. Estimates and partial refund came together within the 21 day period.

My the agency waited FOUR months to complete the so called repairs and then sent us the invoices and the balance of our sec deposit - $180. Wow.

So is four months considered appropriate? I don't think so, but the landlord is convinced that they complied with the law.


Justalayman - are you saying that the 21 day rule applies regardless of the outcome - complete sec deposit refund or partial refund due to "repairs"? That's all I need to know.

I wish the code was more direct on this issue.

Thanks much!

 

[Gail in Georgia]

If repairs take longer than the 21 days, the landlord/management is allowed to provide a "good faith" estimate of these as out lined in the attached:

http://www.dca.ca.gov/publications/landlordbook/sec-deposit.shtml

Since we have no idea of the extent of the damages involved, we have no way of knowing if 4 months is a reasonable amount of time to repair these or not.

Gail

 

[STEPHAN]

So, if I got this right, you got a partical payment and an estimate within 21 days.

How did you respond to that?

 

[ebbrauer]

So, if I got this right, you got a partical payment and an estimate within 21 days.

How did you respond to that?

Hi Stephan,

Yes the landlord met his 21 day requirement.

We did not respond to the partial refund. We awaited the final refund and the invoices. I'm not sure that engaging them at this point would have gained me anything, and I am not aware of a requirement for me to do so.

I did call the agency in Jan of this year to complain about their slowness. They provided no help of course. That was two months after receiving the estimates. We finally received the final invoices, etc., almost four months to the day of our move out.

All work was completed by the beginning of January. One invoice was delayed from Dec to March , which I assume is some trick by the landlord to side step the law. ("Well the maid isn't very good at invoicing. She's slow."). Ridiculous. They are renowned for these games and their small court history supports this.

So where do we draw the line with final refunds? Is it at the 21 day mark, 30 days, 60 days, 90 days...?

So silly that the code does not set a time frame for the final refund. Our case is definitely an example of how some landlords will game the system.

Is there such a thing as precedence in this area of the law? I suspect not.

Thanks for everyone's help!

ebbrauer

 

[ebbrauer]

Here is the answer

A:

The law requires that landlord return the deposit or an itemized list of deductions within 21 days, unless repairs cannot reasonably be completed within that time. In that scenario, they're allowed to deduct a good-faith estimate, as long as they account for the deposit within 14 days of completing the repairs. Cal. Civ. Code, Section 1950.5(g)(3).

So what you're looking at is what repairs were done and when. If all they did was paint and clean the carpet, they should have been able to do it within 21 days and you can probably get the remainder of the deposit back. If they had to order materials, it can take a little longer. Also look at the dates on the receipts. Did they send your check within 14 days of finishing the work? If not, you can get it back.

They're also required to prorate repairs like painting and carpet repair based on how long you lived there. Look at each item individually to see if they did that. It's possible that you could be entitled to get more of the deposit back, even if they were justified in sending only the estimate and not the totals w/in 21 days.


Q:

The landlord did not begin any of their work until post-21 days. It was not completed until early Jan and we did not receive the balance of our deposit until the beginning of March 2014.


A:

If she did not send the accounting within 14 days of when the work was completed, that's evidence of bad faith. When a landlord withholds a security deposit in bad faith, the tenant can sue to receive up treble damages.

Sometimes, explaining the treble damages clause of the statute to the landlord can elicit a refund. But the tenant can also go to Small Claims and file a lawsuit.


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Awesome!