I am preparing to go to small claims court on Wednesday for a dispute with my landlord. I moved out of an apartment after 6 years on September 15, 2018. My security deposit was $1150 ($800 regular and $350 pet). In my 6 years of living there I always paid my rent early and the only repair I asked my landlord to do was for a broken hot water heater ( I went without hot water for 3 days and contacted the plumber myself). She lived in Texas and used some local realtor as a property manager but I honestly never heard from either of them until lease renewal and I often had to prompt that. I was fine with that because I wanted to keep it as low key as possible. Here is a timeline below of what happened next:
10 days: Property manager asks for forwarding address.
30 days: I reach out to P.M. because I hadn't received anything.
31 days: Land lord emails me demanding $1500 for vague damages over the $1150 she already had. She provided no receipts. She also said if I didn't pay she would mail me a final bill of more than $2500 and if she needed to take legal action also charge me for damages for lost rent because she couldn't rent the apartment out in 2 weeks. She was claiming damage to carpet, cleaning, and other random stuff. The carpet had stains coming up shortly after I moved in and was not new when I moved in 6 years prior so it was time to replace it. I then did some legal research and came across the law about returning the security deposit in 21 days or providing receipts or good faith estimates if you need to with hold some of the deposit so I emailed her asking for receipts and reminding her of the law. She would not budge.
41 days: I emailed a formal demand for the return of my security deposit because of the lack of receipts and good faith estimates. I informed her I will be heading to small claims court to sue her for the deposit plus 2 times the security deposit in damages which is outlined in cal civ code. She then responded and said I owe her $2275 and now included a list of estimates which included $1410 for paint. I know for a fact she can not charge me for paint when I was there for 5 years. She still included no receipts or contact info for contractors who will be doing the work. I let her know that this is not a legal itemized list and will proceed with legal action.
44 days: After doing some reading I decided to try to come to a middle ground. I emailed her and agreed to pay $420 from my deposit for various charges but I am not liable for the others so she is to return $730. I said I hoped we could settle this without court.
52 days: LL emailed me saying she is going to return my security deposit in full but is "advising you that I'm doing so without waiving any rights that I have for recovering the property damage done to the unit." I responded with my back info reiterating that I am not liable because the alleged damage is actually wear and tear.
137 days: LL emailed me with a final bill of $1231 ($81 dollars over the security deposit). This invoice had no paint and the carpet was for the remaining life of 30 months because she said the carpet was placed in 2011. She provided some receipts and included a bill from 2011 for buying carpet from costco but the invoice had no mention of the address of the apartment so it could have been for another house. Also she is charging my for stuff like replacing a microwave light and I have pictures from the day I moved out and the light was on. I told her I am not liable for these damages and it is far beyond the 21 days.
I received a court summons because she is suing me for the $1231. I counter sued for the $2300(twice the security deposit) because she did withhold my SD illegally for 31 days even though she ended up returning it. I honestly just counter sued her so I could make sure I had time to outline the fact that she was trying to take advantage of the fact I did not know about tenant law and that I was trying to come to an agreement. This was my first apartment so its sad that this needs to end like this and I have to flush my rental history down the toilet. I just would like to know do judges take the 21 day deadline seriously? I want to know if I should spend time in court focusing on the fact that she didn't follow the rules or focus on disputing her charges?
