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Once Upon a TimeIn OaklandRegistered User regular
Once Upon a TimeIn OaklandRegistered User regular
Hi H&A,
You may remember me from such threads as I Think I'm Living Above A Crazy Person and Oh Sweet Jesus I AM Living Above A Crazy Person.
The good news is that I've moved out of that apartment building (Housing bubble FTW)
The bad news is that, according to California law, I should have gotten my deposit back this past Monday at the latest. I'm currently writing a letter, to hopefully send toady, requesting my deposit back.
My question is, how long should I wait for a response? Legally I could just be sending a letter of intent to sue, but I don't want to provoke her quite yet. I'm thinking of setting a date of Monday the 14th as the date I expect to hear back?
Letter is spoilered below:
You may remember me from such threads as I Think I'm Living Above A Crazy Person and Oh Sweet Jesus I AM Living Above A Crazy Person.
The good news is that I've moved out of that apartment building (Housing bubble FTW)
The bad news is that, according to California law, I should have gotten my deposit back this past Monday at the latest. I'm currently writing a letter, to hopefully send toady, requesting my deposit back.
My question is, how long should I wait for a response? Legally I could just be sending a letter of intent to sue, but I don't want to provoke her quite yet. I'm thinking of setting a date of Monday the 14th as the date I expect to hear back?
Letter is spoilered below:
December 9th, 2009
The Owner
123 Fake St
Oakland, CA. 12345
Regarding: Return of Security Deposit for Apartment ###
Dear Mrs. Lady,
This letter is to inform you that after moving out of our apartment at $APARTMENT on November 15th 2009, we have not received our security deposit. We have not been informed of any reasons why we should not have received the full amount of our deposit.
In accordance with California Civil Code Section 1950.5 we should have received our deposit back no later than December 7th, 2009.
Please send our deposit to our new address by Monday, December 14th, 2009:
H&A doesn’t
Need my address
Oakland, CA. 12345
The Owner
123 Fake St
Oakland, CA. 12345
Regarding: Return of Security Deposit for Apartment ###
Dear Mrs. Lady,
This letter is to inform you that after moving out of our apartment at $APARTMENT on November 15th 2009, we have not received our security deposit. We have not been informed of any reasons why we should not have received the full amount of our deposit.
In accordance with California Civil Code Section 1950.5 we should have received our deposit back no later than December 7th, 2009.
Please send our deposit to our new address by Monday, December 14th, 2009:
H&A doesn’t
Need my address
Oakland, CA. 12345
Huh...
FF on
0
Posts
That may get tricky, as I don't have an address for the property owner, just her on-site manager. So, I'll have to be sending it to the on-site manager with a note to please pass it on to the owner. I guess I can still send it registered so at least I know it got to someone.
We're talking in the neighborhood of $1000 (if they don't fuck around) to $3000 (if they do fuck around). In California I believe these things are handled through Small Claims Court, but I'm not sure.
To cut through the bullshit and set the expectation that you're not fucking around. Again, depending on how much money we're talking about here, I would rather spend ten minutes and a hundred bucks with a lawyer to have them whip something up and send it out than a week of time prepping and sending something and dealing with the BS response you typically will get back. But, I value my time.
Yes, still send it registered/certified.
I've had to deal with this twice in my life. Both times were for a full refund of my damage deposit because they didn't send it to me in the required 14 days. Both times I sent a letter that I had written myself. I cited the law and asked for my deposit back. It took maybe a half hour of reading to find the right RCW cite, then 10 minutes to write a business-like letter, print and sign it, then however long it took waiting in line at the post office to send that registered mail message. Although now that I think about the the first time I sent that letter it was just regular mail. Anyway, both times the landlord returned my money promptly.
Well, they don't get in any trouble if they wait for you to ask formally the first time, THEN send it. And you have to figure some people don't end up writing the formal letter. It's free money for them when people don't follow up.
Exactly. The OP should just write a letter and cite the relevant code. It should be available online, even.
This is what I've ended up doing, so far. In CA it's 21 calendar days, so the owner is behind by...4 days now.
Mailed the letter yesterday, the on-site manager should be getting it either today or tomorrow. I also dropped a note for the on-site manager to please forward it on to the property owner.
Sadly, the on-site manager has no control over my deposit aside from signing off on the move out/walkthrough form, stating that the apartment was ready to rent, cleaned thoroughly, etc. I've been checking up on the building owner and there are a few horror stories from people trying to get their deposits back.
One thing that happened in my case was the landlord wanted to keep the deposit until he could find a new tenant, i.e. he didn't actually have my money. I'm told that this is unfortunately fairly common practice among shmuck landlords who think they can get away with it.
After two polite verbal requests and two weeks overdue, I just sent a firmly worded, registered letter demanding immediate repayment, along with a photocopy of my receipt for the deposit (to show I had the relevant documents for a court case) and a reference of the appropriate law and the applicable financial penalties.
Surprise surprise, I had a check in my hands in 48 hours. If your landlord isn't an idiot, they will get you your money.
I started here: http://www.dca.ca.gov/publications/landlordbook/sec-deposit.shtml (late returns are down the page a ways).