Broke the lease, landlord held 3/4 of security deposit.

[mariajose79]

Hello.
I broke my lease to move from CA to PA, we gave notice by mid August that we were leaving in october, the 20th or sooner. So we didn't leave the 20th but the 29th of october and new people moved to the unit by november 1st. On november 10th we received some security deposit back 750 of the 2500 we gave them. The house was in excellent shape, we super cleaned every time he has a showing and he has a moving out checklist and nothing but a window screen and a light fixture were marked as damaged. We even clean before leaving.
Now here is my question can he hold that much money because he has to clean or paint in a hurry? He told me he won't give us a detail of the expenses because we broke the lease and that doesn't apply to us. Am I entitle to do something, or he is right when he says that I loose all my rights because I broke the lease.
Hope to get some clarity.

 

[mightymoose]

He must provide a detailed list if deductions from your security deposit within a specified time... usually 3-4 weeks. If he does not provide that itemized list then he will owe you the full refund regardless of damages. It will be up to you to assert this, however if you are now in PA then you have a problem... and he likely knows this.
Your landlord is not out anything since the apartment rented right away. If he wants to keep 1750 for damages he will have to show proof of the expenses, and those things must be beyond normal wear and tear.
If you go to court it will have to be in CA... what will it cost you to return to CA? Do you have someone local in CA that can file papers for you? Contact the court and find out about options available to you from out of state.
It sounds like you are certainly owed money... you just are in a bad position to assert your right to it.

 

[mariajose79]

First tahnk you for answering my post, and second do you have any recomendation?!. We are planing to write him a simple letter letting him know that we know what the law is, and see what happens next. I'm hopping this works.

 

[Gail_in_Georgia]

California has some pretty specific requirements regarding security deposits. You can familiarize yourself with them here:

http://www.dca.ca.gov/publications/landlordbook/sec-deposit.shtml

Gail

 

[bluemann33]

Hello.
I broke my lease to move from CA to PA, we gave notice by mid August that we were leaving in october, the 20th or sooner. So we didn't leave the 20th but the 29th of october and new people moved to the unit by november 1st. On november 10th we received some security deposit back 750 of the 2500 we gave them. The house was in excellent shape, we super cleaned every time he has a showing and he has a moving out checklist and nothing but a window screen and a light fixture were marked as damaged. We even clean before leaving.
Now here is my question can he hold that much money because he has to clean or paint in a hurry? He told me he won't give us a detail of the expenses because we broke the lease and that doesn't apply to us. Am I entitle to do something, or he is right when he says that I loose all my rights because I broke the lease.
Hope to get some clarity.

He has to give you a detailed list of what damages there where. If the landlord signed off on the final walkthrough then he cant come back later and say something was damaged.