My question involves a security deposit in the State of: California

I put 30 days notice for my mom's apartment because of illness and had a dr.'s note.

Landlord had no issues and we were due to have my mom's belongings out by dec. 12th

landlord emails me and says they have someone that wanted to move in dec. 1st and if we had it cleaned out we would not be responsible for the 12 days of rent.

We rushed and had it cleaned out, the people didn't end up taking the apartment and the landlord took 12 days of rent out of the deposit.

please tell me this is not legal.