A Los Angeles apartment company agreed to pay $12.5 million to resolve claims that it withheld security deposits from more than 19,000 tenants.
California renter rights
Did Your California Landlord Keep Your Security Deposit?
They had 21 days to send you an itemized statement and receipts. If they didn’t, or if they charged you for carpet cleaning, painting, or a flat “cleaning fee,” that may be illegal.
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You left the apartment clean. The move-out charges still told a different story.
Does this feel familiar?
You Cleaned the Place. They Kept the Money Anyway.
You scrubbed the oven. You patched the nail holes. You did the walkthrough and someone from the office told you it looked fine.
Then the letter came. Carpet cleaning, $350. Interior painting, $600. General cleaning, $275. And a check for $40 out of the $1,800 you gave them.
Maybe you called. Maybe you emailed and got told it was “standard.” Then you let it go, because you had a new place to deal with and a few hundred dollars was not worth hiring a lawyer over.
That is exactly what they were counting on.Let an attorney take a closer look.
See If You Have a CaseWhy it keeps happening
See If You Have a Case
You moved. You got busy. Eventually the money stopped mattering enough to think about.
Here is what did not change. They are still doing it. This month, in the same buildings, someone is opening the same letter you opened, looking at the same charges, and deciding it is not worth the fight.
The law in plain English
What California Law Actually Requires
California Civil Code section 1950.5 is specific. Your landlord must:
- Return your deposit within 21 days of you moving out.
- Send an itemized statement showing exactly what was deducted and why.
- Include copies of receipts or invoices for any repair or cleaning work.
- Charge you only for damage beyond ordinary wear and tear.
- Charge for cleaning only to return the unit to the level of cleanliness it was in when you moved in. Not better.
- Since July 1, 2024, collect no more than one month’s rent as a deposit for most landlords.
Does This Sound Familiar?
- You never got an itemized statement, or it came later than 21 days.
- You got a list of charges but no receipts or invoices.
- You were charged a set cleaning fee that looked like a standard amount.
- You were charged for carpet cleaning or replacement in a unit you kept clean.
- You were charged for repainting.
- You were never told you could request a walkthrough inspection before moving out.
- You got back little or none of your deposit and no real explanation.
If you checked even one of these, it is worth twenty minutes of our time to look at it.
A wider pattern
This Is Bigger Than Your Deposit
When a large apartment company applies an automatic cleaning charge, it is not charging you. It is charging everyone. Thousands of units, every move-out, year after year. That is not a mistake. That is a revenue line.
California has taken this seriously for a long time:
The California Attorney General has taken action against Orange County apartment companies over automatic pre-set cleaning charges deducted from deposits, recovering more than $1 million in refunds for renters.
Those cases were brought by tenants and public officials who decided the amounts were worth pursuing together, even though no single tenant had a large claim.
Your case might be worth a few hundred dollars on its own. That is not the number that matters.The results described above were obtained in other cases against other companies. Every case is different. Prior results do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome in any other matter.
Your review is free and confidential.
See If You Have a CasePotential recovery
What You May Be Entitled To
If a landlord kept your deposit improperly, California law provides for:
- The money that was wrongly withheld, returned to you.
- Where a landlord acted in bad faith, a court may award up to twice the amount of the security deposit on top of that.
- Interest and costs in some circumstances.
And If You Are the One Who Steps Forward
Cases like this are usually brought by one or two people on behalf of everyone the same thing happened to. That person does more than the rest. They sign the paperwork, answer the questions, and put their name on it.
When a case resolves, courts can award that person additional compensation, separate from and on top of what everyone else receives, in recognition of the time and responsibility involved. Whether that happens, and how much, is up to the judge.
Time-sensitive claim
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There Is a Deadline
California puts time limits on these claims. Depending on how the claim is brought, the window can be as short as one year and as long as four.
If you moved out of a California apartment in the last four years, have someone look at it now rather than later. Records get purged. Companies switch software. Paperwork gets thrown out in the next move.
Straight answers
Questions People Ask Us
On its own, no. That is precisely why these charges work. When the same practice is applied to thousands of tenants, the total is substantial and it becomes worth pursuing. You do not need a big individual claim to be part of a case like this.
The company has it. They are required to keep records. If you still have your move-out statement or your lease, uploading it speeds things up considerably. If you do not, contact us anyway.
California law does not let a lease waive your rights under the security deposit statute. A lease provision that tries to is not enforceable.
Nothing to talk to us. If we take your case, you pay no attorney’s fee unless we recover money for you. Before you sign anything, we will explain in writing exactly how case costs are handled.
Tell us the name of the apartment community and the city. That is usually enough for us to figure out the rest.
Two minutes on the form below. An attorney reviews it and tells you honestly whether there is something there. No charge, no obligation, and you decide what happens next.
See If You Have a CaseFree case review
Find Out If You Have a Case
Takes about two minutes. Everything you tell us is confidential.
- Your information is reviewed confidentially.
- The form usually takes about two minutes.
- No charge and no obligation to proceed.
Got It. Here’s What Happens Next.
Someone from our office will reach out shortly to ask a few follow-up questions. There is nothing you need to do in the meantime.
If you can find any of the following before we talk, it will help. Your lease. Your move-out statement. Photos you took of the apartment when you left. Any emails with the management office about the charges.
If you cannot find them, do not worry about it. We can get most of this from the company.