Check Carefully Before Returning Deposit
Question: My tenant recently moved out at the end of the lease. I made a quick walk-through of the rental unit and things seemed to be fine so I immediately returned the entire security deposit. A week later when I went through the unit more carefully, I found there were several costly items (oven, garbage disposal and dishwasher) that were broken by the tenant’s negligence. Can I recover the cost of repairing these items? If so, how?
Ted Smith replies:
You were a little quick on the deposit return. California law allows you 21 days after the tenant vacates to return the deposit. I believe that you can still sue the tenant for the undiscovered damages, but you’ll have a tough row to hoe.
The judge will have to be satisfied that a reasonable person could not have discovered these latent defects without a close inspection. If the judge believes you, you will be able to recover the repair and replacement expenses to the oven, garbage disposal and dishwasher.
Next time, make sure you check out these appliances when doing the walk-through and take your time on returning the security deposit.
Steven R. Kellman replies:
The law gives a landlord certain benefits in the deduction of deposit money for lawful purposes. However, these benefits disappear with too much time. If the tenant did the damage, you should have been able to detect it rather quickly, certainly within three weeks of getting the property back. It takes only one day to turn on appliances to check them out. Thus, coming up one or two months later with these claims of tenant damage is possible but will not likely be accepted by a court.
Deposit ‘Follows’ New Renters on Same Lease
Q: I am an on-site manager who leased an apartment to four students. The lease has expired and they are now on a month-to-month basis. When they moved in, I received a security deposit of $500 without any breakdown of what amount each student paid.
In the last few months, two of the students have moved out and two new students have moved in. The new students formally applied, were approved and signed the original rental agreement. There was no change made in the status of the security deposit.
The owner told me to handle the situation this way, but I am concerned about the status of the security deposit if the remaining original two tenants vacate and demand their deposit. I will then have an apartment without a security deposit. How should I handle this now? What should I do in the future?
Smith replies:
When multiple tenants sign a lease, the landlord looks at the group of them as a sort of “package.” It is not necessary to determine the actual source of the security deposit because, legally, it came from all four students as tenants of record on the lease.
The general rule is that the security deposit “follows” the apartment. Since two of the four are continuing on, there is no duty to return the security deposit to the students who are leaving.
*
This column is written by property manager Robert Griswold, host of “Real Estate Today!” (KSDO-AM [1130], 10 a.m. to noon Saturdays), and attorneys Steven R. Kellman, director of the Tenants’ Legal Center, and Ted Smith, principal in a law firm representing landlords. For questions write to Rental Roundtable, Real Estate section, L.A. Times, Times Mirror Square, L.A., CA 90053. Or you may e-mail them at rgriswold.latimes@retodayradio.com. Questions cannot be answered individually.
