Hi everybody! It's Andy and welcome again
to my office in Los Altos, California. I'm
an attorney licensed to practice law in
California as well as New York. In this
video, I'm going to go over how
California law treats security deposit
deductions in residential landlord-
tenant situations. Now if you've seen any
of my other landlord-tenant videos, you
know that I give a four-part disclaimer
at the very beginning. So I'm gonna give
that same disclaimer now. The first thing
is that I'm going to be talking about
residential landlord-tenant only. If you
have a commercial landlord-tenant type
of situation involving a business, an
office, a warehouse, something like that,
this video might apply to you or might not.
There are a lot of similarities between
commercial stuff and residential stuff in
California, but there are some big
differences as well. So you can watch
this video, but I don't, you know, profess
to know the details of commercial landlord-
tenant law. So, number two, is that if
you have a, sort of, unusual rental
situation involving like a houseboat, a
mobile home, something like that, this video may
not apply to you either. It's possible
that it might, but I just don't know that
it, you know, whether or not it does. This
video is meant primarily for people who
are renting, you know, brick-and-mortar
types of structures so, for example, a
house, an apartment or something like that.
That's what this video or that's who
these videos are kind of meant for.
Number three is that if you have any
sort of Section 8 or government
assistance, anything like that, you need
to check what the rules for security
deposit deductions are in those situations.
It is possible that, you know, what I'm
about to say in this video might not
apply directly to you because the rules
for your program supersede them in some
way. The rules for programs for
government assistance are generally very
complicated. I haven't checked and it's
going to be impossible for me to check
every program out there. So the last
thing is that if you have any sort of
local rental ordinance, city ordinance,
county law, anything like that, it is
possible those requirements will apply
in addition to what the state requires.
So, I guess, you know, if you live in a
county or city that does have that
you have to follow what the state says
and then you have to follow with a
county or state -- er, county or city says
rather -- on top of it. So it's a two-part
kind of deal for you. So all of that said
then, I don't mean to discourage you, I
guess, but the question we're talking
about today is, I guess, phrased from
either the landlord-side or the tenant-
side is basically this: if you're a
landlord you might ask yourself 'When my
tenant moves out, what can I legally deduct
from his or her security deposit?' Then
from the tenant-side, you know, the
landlord -- er, the tenant -- might go 'Hey, you
know, my landlord only returned me half of
my security deposit. Is that correct?
Should he or she have returned more to me
or, you know, did I make out and, you know,
he didn't deduct for everything he could
have, etc. So regardless of which
side of the coin you're on, the governing
law here in California is going to be
California Civil Code section 1950.5(e)
which I will go ahead and paste and link
down below, you know, like I always do, but
if you look over section e -- 1950.5(e) -- you
find that there are four situations in
which a landlord can legally deduct from
the tenant's security deposit. I'm gonna
go over all four of them now, but go
ahead and look over the actual statute,
you know, down below to get the precise
wording, you know, to see, you know, for
sure whether or not it applies in your
situation or not. Because I'm only going
to be talking kind of in the abstract in
general. Number one, the first situation
is basically that the landlord can
deduct from the tenant's security deposit
for rent that the tenant owes at the
time of move out. So that's, I think,
fairly self-explanatory. Number two is
going to be if the unit or the rental
property requires cleaning in order to
be brought up to the condition that it
was in when the tenant moved in, the
landlord can deduct for that also. Number
three is going to be very similar, but
it's the repair kind of version of it.
Basically it's going to be if the if
the tenant damaged the unit above and
beyond normal wear and tear, then the
landlord can deduct from the security
deposit to repair whatever damage the
tenant caused.
Now the repair kind of situation comes
up a lot. The key point to remember here
is that it has to be above and beyond
normal wear and tear. That can be kind of
tricky to define in situations, but the
basic idea is that if the carpet or if
the stove or if the paint was basically
at the end of its useful life anyway,
then, you know, the tenant just happened
to be living there when the carpet
just needed to be replaced. That is not
"above and beyond" normal wear and tear.
And finally, situation number four is
that, you know, if there is, you know,
furnishings or keys or any other type of
item, I guess, that comes with the rental
unit, the cost of repairing, cleaning or
restoring that type of stuff can be
deducted from the security deposit also.
However, the lease for the apartment unit -
er, for the rental unit rather - has to
allow for that. So the thing is if you're
trying to, if you're the landlord and you're
trying to deduct for the cost of
replacing the key, the lease has to
provide for that explicitly. So hopefully
all of that made sense. There's basically
four kind of big situations in which
deductions can be made from a tenant's
security deposit. Thinking about it now,
there are a couple other types of common
questions, I guess, that come up when it,
you know, pertains to security deposits.
Number one is that can the, you know, can
the security deposit be made
non-refundable? Can the landlord say, you
know, you give me the security deposit
and that's it, you don't get it back when
you move out even if, you know, there's no
damage, no rent, no cleaning, anything like
that. And the answer to that question is
no. A security deposit for a
landlord-tenant situation -- er, residential
landlord-tenant situation in California --
cannot be non-refundable. The law for
that is civil, California Civil Code
section 1950.5(m) which I'll link down
below for you if that's your type of
situation. Another kind of common
question is, you know, when can or when is
the landlord supposed to return the
security deposit to me? You might have
heard 21 calendar days if you're the
tenant. It is 21 calendar days. It
is California Civil Code section 1950.5(g)(1)
that says that. What else? I guess
if the landlord does deduct stuff from
the security deposit, the rules about, you
know, what kind of documentation he or
she needs to provide receipts, all that
type of stuff. Basically that's going to be
California Civil Code section 1950.5(g)
and specifically subsections 2
through 6. 2 through 6, because there's so
many, it's kind of hard to describe them
all so I'm going to refer you down to,
down to the description where I've
linked 1950.5(g) as well as 1950.5(m).
So, hopefully all that makes sense.
Security deposits are not terribly
complicated to administer in California.
You have to remember deductions in four
situations only. Cannot be made
non-refundable. Has to be returned within
21 days, and there are specific rules for
itemization. Yeah so hopefully all that
helped. Again go ahead and take a look
at the statutes that I've linked down below.
Share this video, subscribe, comment, like,
etc. and I will talk to you guys next
time. Thanks.