My question involves a security deposit in the State of: CA
we have filed a sm case have court on 12-22
question is
Under California law, 21 calendar days or less after you move, your landlord must either: is this BUSINESS DAYSor CALENDAR DAYS??
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.194
The landlord also must send you copies of receipts for the charges that the landlord incurred to repair or clean the rental unit and that the landlord deducted from your security deposit. The landlord must include the receipts with the itemized statement.195 The landlord must follow these rules:
Our LL has never provided us with recipts period.. even being asked by us with certifies letters...
If the landlord or the landlord's employees did the work - The itemized statement must describe the work performed, including the time spent and the hourly rate charged. The hourly rate must be reasonable.
If another person or business did the work - The landlord must provide you copies of the person's or business' invoice or receipt. The landlord must provide the person's or business' name, address and telephone number on the invoice or receipt, or in the itemized statement.
If the landlord deducted for materials or supplies - The landlord must provide you a copy of the invoice or receipt. If the item used to repair or clean the unit is something that the landlord purchases regularly or in bulk, the landlord must reasonably document the item's cost (for example, by an invoice, a receipt or a vendor's price list)196
the full story...
We moved out of a rental on 04-xx-2008 we physically handed our keys to the renter on 05- 12-2008 ( we paid rent for the entire month of 5-08) since we wanted to get back to the old rental to clean up and make sure everything was done at the rental place. Which was done from about 5-3-08 through 5-10-08. does the time of the 21 day cout down start now?
Prior to actually moving our we sent our landlord a letter stating we were moving out on 4-30-08 and included a check for the month ahead which was 5-30-08 and sent the final payment for the month of may. He did get the letter and the check and the check was cashed on xx-xx-2008 check number XXX
Our letter had all of our new info on it + contact info cell #'s etc. We waiting to get the refund or repair amount sent to us.
The repair estimate was not received until 7-1-08 it was also sent to HIS address which was our old rental address; he stated he did not have the new address on him when he mailed it so he just wanted to get it mailed out before the 21 days were over
We had called him several times to ask when we would get the security deposit back and once we received it we called and left several messages as to why the repair bill was 700.00 above what our sec deposit was.
He finally responded on 7-3-08 and said it was just a rough estimate (it even said this on his estimate letter) so he said he would send us a revised estimate which would be much lower (per ca law the landlord must send the refund back or the repair letter within 21 days or they must refund the entire deposit.
As of this date we have since sent him a certified letter stating he had till 9-30-08 to send us the final estimate.
He did get the letter within 1 day of it being mailed and has not done anything since.
We got the legal paperwork to sue in small claims and per CA law The landlord can be liable to up to 3x the original amount.
We have never sent him a letter asking for him to refund the original security deposit just asking to send the estimate for repairs (we knew there would be some repairs but his repair estimate was just bloated... saying it cost 400.00 for a hollow core door and 500.00 for ceiling light fixture and 500.00 for dumping fee's (and we left nothing there to take to the dump)
Anyhow has anyone else had to go through this type of thing and go to court?

