My question involves a security deposit in the State of: California
Hi. I lived in a house last year and was the 7th person out of household contract that would only allow 6 people max, so technically I wasn't allowed to be there at all; all 6 other people signed the contract. I lived there under the radar and the housing company either had no idea that I lived there or they turned a blind eye. I paid my rent to one of my housemates who would write a check under his name, since I was not allowed to send a check of my own to the housing company. However, now that the lease is up, they are refusing to give a lot of my deposit back (they wrote me a check for 150 dollars with sec deposit in the memo), but they are stating that I have no entitlement to the rest of the deposit since I was never on the lease and my name is not on the check that the housing company issued.
They also are saying that and that I can't take anyone to court because I cant sue anyone over a breached contact, since we had 1 person over the limit of 6, the contract was void or something.
I have a few checks that say rent that I made out to my housemate, but that's about it. I also have some recordings of them recognizing me as living there for the year and paying rent to him. they are blowing this over because they say it doesn't matter since our entire contract was voided anyways.
Is there anything I can do?

