My question involves a security deposit in the State of: California
i moved from Michigan to California in July, and after our initial contract went from a 1 year to a month to month when we got here, the rental company insisted that the 3 woman owners were not going to sell the property...and our contract said we had to be given a 120 day "notice of listing" if it did...but a buyer was on our doorstep 9 days after moving in and sure enough, it was listed.
we reminded the realitor / leasing agent, that we had a contract and they told the owners who took it off the market...only to do so again 30 days later...and we reminded them again of the contract so we were given notice that it would go up for sale in January.
when it got cold in aug, we discovered that remodeling that was done to bathrooms and such totally closed off heating vents and with others being shut off at the furnace, we had no heat!
46º in the house and the realitor didn't even hear from the owners after 2 months of my letters, we gave notice of leaving in 30 days...but found out from the last tenant that he went to court over the same thing and the owners didn't return the security deposit and put responsibility on him for damage that was documented before he got in.
THE QUESTION: the realitor is acting as if not repsonsible at all: "they have 21 days to get you your deposit ...or you go to small claims if they don't"....and i have NO INFO ON THE OWNERS and was told by a rental company that the REALITOR/leasing agent is RESPONSIBLE to get my security deposit back because my contract is with THEM, not the owners.
i have looked all over the internet on these laws and cannot find this 3rd party info. anyone know what my options are?
tx greatly! it's cost all i have saved to move here in the first place ($4800) and i had to come up with another $600 to move AGAIN when it should not have been rented in the first place, violating the habitability 1941.1 laws. I need that security deposit back as i'm broke and have a daughter with 6 diseases so "debt for life" will be my middle name anyway! i appreciate any help!

