All Forum Posts by: Tom Malloy

@Hubert Kim. Thanks for the advice! We actually tried to work it out but the LL refused. In Brandon’s book “Real Estate Investing” he mentions that in some states if the LL fails to have a written initial occupancy inspection the LL loses the right to retain any deposit regardless of repairs. I’m just trying to find out if this is the case in California. The LL returned our deposit after 35 days and took out 20% for “repairs” and gave no receipts. I think he was short of cash himself and figured he could just keep part of our deposit. I would like to take him to small claims court and would like to have a locked in strategy if possible.

I live in California. My last LL kept $950 of my deposit for “damage”. We never had any initial walkthrough or property inspection. I never got receipts for the work either. Can he hold any of my deposit if there was no initial inspection?