California Rental Desposit for Utilities

[Kendra Mattson]

Since utility bills come out the month after the tenant uses the service, I get utility bills for a tenant after they've already left. I normally end up telling the tenant before they leave that I'll hold the deposit until the bills settle out, deduct those, and send them the rest assuming there are no damages (unless for some reason they'd prefer to keep them separate). But looking over a couple legal websites about CA deposits, they don't seem to specify that this is an allowed deduction, though I found a website on tenant laws overall that it's allowed in most states. I don't think it's a big issue either way, but I'd rather do things as legally correct as possible! Is anyone familiar with this aspect of the deposit rules? How do you normally handle this?

Thank you in advance!