Landlord Tenant Question (apartment, deposit, inspection, legally)

[TheJustine]

I rented an apartment in CA for 1 year. I gave my landlord a $1200 deposit. Never did a initial walk through and now after moving out i'm being charged $788 dollars in cleaning, cleaning supplies, new fridge, fuel to go to the dump, and yard maintenance. I left the place spotless! Literally got down on my hands and knees and scrubbed the cabinets, stove, sinks, bath, floors, baseboards etc. Didn't leave any trash or any of my belongings behind. Prior to me moving in the fridge was duct taped with orange duct tape to hold the shelves in place and now i'm being charged for damaging the fridge and having to replace it. Luckily i took pics of that. But can a landlord legally charge you if they didn't use a licensed cleaning company or a licensed landscaping business. Can she really charge me for spending 21 hours of cleaning a 300 sq. foot apartment which was in great shape when we did the walk through together and she even admitted it looked super clean. She's also charging me for cleaning supplies up to 80 dollars! to me that's insane. I just need some info on who's right and what i can legally do with this.
Thanks!

[Electrician4you]

Yes a LL can DIY and charge the tenant. BUT it has to be a a reasonable rate. And they can charge for cleaning supplies also again has to be a reasonable rate. The LL should send a itemized list that corresponds to the amount deducted.
Some of those repairs cannot be charged to tenant as they fall under wear tear or general maintenance which is usually not the tenants duty.

[Eldarwen75]

Did you do a move out walkthrough - do you have something in writing?

Yes, the landlord can charge you for cleaning - but we encourage our owners not to charge for their time because it is often questioned if they are taken to small claims. If you have something in writing, or pictures of the unit when you left the judge will likely side with you, particularly since 21 hours is unreasonable.

(not sure where you are in CA?)

[bentlebee]

LL can't charge for cleaning if the place is clean. But you will need to have proof it was clean.

I have heard many tenants say the place was spot clean and later saying that dust was normal wear and tear. Windows not cleaned in the 2.5 years they were at the property was considered "that was how they were when we moved in", same for blinds....

Your cleaning level may not be the same level of cleaning a LL has.

It is not necessary for a LL to conduct a move in or move out inspection WITH the tenant present as we don't do for several reasons but we have time and date stamped pictures on the day prior of moving in since often we get tenants who arrive late at night and as a courtesy we will put on the door a coded lock box so they can arrive at any time and get access.
We have move out pictures to with time and date on it.

We always tell tenants to provide a list of items they feel is not correct or what they want to report and we will give them approx. 5 days to provide it. If it is 8 days we would also be fine with it and safe it on file.

In most cases we never hear anything and never see a list but when the tenants move out we hear it all the time.

"we left it cleaner than when we moved in...there were roaches all over the place...we had the place professionally cleaned (no receipts)...we went on our knees to scrub (sorry but we hear it often and ironically only from people where the place is not clean)".

[beera]

Why should you pay for a BRAND NEW fridge? New shelves when yours were duct-taped up? 21 hours of cleaning?

This is why you always do a walkthrough! I hope you took pictures...