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Ex Landlor Ignoring Now

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pinkbuggie

Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? California

We moved in last October and in April we decided to move out due to mice infestation. We have asked the landlord many times if they could do anything about the mice but they said no and agreed to give us $40 to go buy mouse traps & poison. When we told them we were moving out in the middle of April, they flipped out and got mad at us for not giving them a 30 day notice. So on May 1st, we gave them a 30 day notice contract and on there we requested for an inspection 2 weeks prior to the last of the 30 days (May 30th). We called them about the inspection but it seems as they didn't even read our 30 day notice because they didn't know anything about the inspection.

On the last day that we cleaned out the house and we paid someone else to come cut the yard grass. We called them to come look and see if anything else would need to be clean or fix. They told us the only thing they needed us to do was clean the stove, took the house keys from us, and left. We cleaned the stove, called them that we had finished, but they told us to just lock up the doors. When we left, the yard has not been completely done. We asked how the house was to them and when we will be expecting our $500 deposit back. They said the house looks good and we should expect it in 30 days. We told them our lease contract stated that deposit shall be return in 21 days.

On June 22, they called us that they would only return $240 of our deposit back. They claimed they called someone to come do the inspection AFTER we left and the house was not clean, there were dog poop in the house, and the yard was not done. They told us they had new tenants moved in 2 weeks after we moved out so they had to clean everything. We told them that we left the house the way it was when they came to look at the house, in which they even told us everything was fine. We understand the yard may have not been done since we left early but it would not cost up to $260 of the deposit. We told them the inspection was supposed to be done 2 weeks prior to the moving out date and they should've called us over when the inspection was being done after we left. They only said they will look at the inspection pictures again.

It has been over 30 days, and we can not get a reach of them. They have changed their number and seemed to disappear. They accidentally called us from an unknown number and we called back but it was from the military base (the husband is in the navy). They told us they try to get a reach of them and call us back, but we haven't heard anything. Can anything be done about this? Do we have a case if we bring it upon court?

Also, I am not sure if it is a case of fraud but they told us they were trying to refinance the house. Before they said anything to us, a man from the bank had came to see them regarding the house, but we told him they were renting it out to us. He seemed shock and left his number for them to call him. We told them he came by and they were also shock as well; they told us if anyone came for the house, for us to just tell them they were not home. Since then, they had their mails come to the house even till now with the new tenants.
 


Gail in Georgia

Senior Member
Attached is information on the security deposit law for California:

California Tenants - California Department of Consumer Affairs

A move out inspection is often not the end all in terms of finding further damage after a tenant vacates a home. This is why all states give a landlord a certain amount of time to find, determine and respond to damages above normal wear and tear.

However, California requires that a landlord notify a former tenant within 21 days the status of their security deposit. Failure to do negates the landlords ability to keep any of the security deposit.

So yes, it is possible to sue the landlord for your entire security deposit. Your biggest problem is that in order to be sued the landlord must be served notice that such a lawsuit has been filed against them. If you can't find them, you cannot serve them notice.

Gail
 

bent-over

Junior Member
if you have his name you can find his unit i'm sure his CO. would not like getting phone calls from ex tennents. its an a$$hole way to deal with it but i've seen it work in the past.
 

pinkbuggie

Junior Member
So after searching around, we found out the husband has been involved in some military problems. We finally got a reach of the wife and she said she had left a check for $260 at her father for us to pick up. Since they did not notify us within 21 days, by California law we can sue them for our entire deposit of $500.

If we pick up that check, can we still take it to court for the rest of the $240 deposit?
 

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