Hopefully, they will just do it without her having to go through litigation.  

I'm an attorney, more of a litigator than a transactional guy, but interested in becoming more of the latter as I get old and want to stop fighting with all those young turks.Anyway, I am finally ready to get involved in real estate investing after many years of exploring options. 

The California Landlord-Tenant Handbook, and the law (Civil Code 1950.5), address this specific issue and state the following:The landlord may perform a final inspection after the tenant has moved out of the rental.

This separates the assets in the two entities if there is any litigation or other legal issues. 

I am pursing a degree in Civil Engineering as of right now.... and, I'm close to a minor in Real Estate.

If you want a clear answer about what your legal options are, you would need to reach out to a real estate litigation attorney and ask.

I would never recommend someone invest in California unless they're very experienced because it is the most heavily regulated, heavily litigated place in the country, maybe the world.

With a one man show brokerage there is nobody to call except the State Board but that's a long process and the transaction is lost or goes into litigation.80% of the deals get done by 20% of the agents and you can ask any of the top 20% what they think of the other 80%.

Then you can consider a civil suit to adjudicate the return of the funds.

For example anything behind walls are mostly change orders (ie mold), most newbies miss these kinds of issues and it will arise; now we are here to do a job, in and out, as quickly as possible, we don’t have time to go to litigation or argument because they didn’t know that those are extras, and even more so they don’t have the budget for it.On a different note, ask them to buy J Scotts book, it’s a great start.