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My house in California was rented for three years by a 3-person family. My tenants moved out on June 30th. When I went there to do inspection, I found out that there is a lot of work and only a normal cleaning service would not be enough to make the house ready for the next tenant. I have been cleaning the house since the day after my tenants moved out and still every day I become surprised by finding something new, which needs to be cleaned or repaired. To see the conditions of the premises, I attach some photos. My tenants have paid $898 as their security deposit. Although I have already read about the laws related to security deposit matter in CA Civil Code Section 1950.5, I would like the property owners with similar experiences to me consider my situation and advise me regarding the following items
1- How to calculate their security deposit and provide an itemized list, while I do not have any invoice in my hands.
2- As my tenants have not left any forwarding address, shall I contact and ask her the new address for sending the itemized list? I know that the California law says I shall send the letter to their previous address, where is my house. I am just double-checking other options.
3- Based on my calculations so far, the damage and charges due to cleaning including vertical blinds, wall and carpet cleaning exceeds their security deposit amount. In other words, I am afraid their security deposit covers all my effort and labor as well as the amount of gas I burnt to reach myself to the house every day to revert everything back to the situation they entered the house three years ago. In this situation, shall I send them the itemized list and ask them to cover the amount, which exceeds their security deposit?
1: Security deposit - reasonable charge to repair x - reasonable charge to repair y - reasonable charge to repair z = -$X. You take their security deposit and subtract a reasonable charge for each repair. It doesn't have to be your actual cost, just something reasonable. $25 per blinds is reasonable, $150 per blinds isn't. Some places provide a list of charges at move-in, some states probably regulate some of these charges, but as long as it is reasonable, you should be fine. You can ask them to pay the difference, but they won't, and you shouldn't waste your time, money, or effort into pursuing them over it at all.
2: You can try to contact them for a mailing address of their security deposit (I wouldn't mention they aren't actually getting any refund). If you don't get a response, send it to the house, they may have put in a forwarding address with the post office.
3: See 1. Don't mention your time, gas, etc. Just do a flat charge per repair.
I think this highlights that you weren't doing adequate inspections. You should never be too surprised by what you find unless they decided to actively trash the house right before they moved out and intentionally do damage. This type of stuff should have been caught at the regular inspections and addressed at that time.
1: Security deposit - reasonable charge to repair x - reasonable charge to repair y - reasonable charge to repair z = -$X. You take their security deposit and subtract a reasonable charge for each repair. It doesn't have to be your actual cost, just something reasonable. $25 per blinds is reasonable, $150 per blinds isn't. Some places provide a list of charges at move-in, some states probably regulate some of these charges, but as long as it is reasonable, you should be fine. You can ask them to pay the difference, but they won't, and you shouldn't waste your time, money, or effort into pursuing them over it at all.
2: You can try to contact them for a mailing address of their security deposit (I wouldn't mention they aren't actually getting any refund). If you don't get a response, send it to the house, they may have put in a forwarding address with the post office.
3: See 1. Don't mention your time, gas, etc. Just do a flat charge per repair.
I think this highlights that you weren't doing adequate inspections. You should never be too surprised by what you find unless they decided to actively trash the house right before they moved out and intentionally do damage. This type of stuff should have been caught at the regular inspections and addressed at that time.
Lease Agreement says:
Quote:
CARE, CLEANING AND MAINTENANCE: Except as prohibited by law, Resident agrees:
(a) to keep the premises as clean and sanitary as their condition permits and to dispose of all rubbish, garbage and other
waste, in a clean and sanitary manner, unless Owner/Agent has expressly agreed otherwise in writing in an addendum to
this Agreement. Resident shall ensure that large boxes are broken apart before being placed in trash containers. Resident
shall be responsible, at Resident’s expense, for hauling to the dump those items too large to fit in the trash containers.
Resident shall not dispose of any flammable liquids, rags or other items soaked with flammable liquids or any other
hazardous material in trash containers or bins;
(b) to properly use and operate all electrical, gas and plumbing fixtures and keep them as clean and sanitary as their
condition permits;
(c) to keep the premises and furniture, furnishings and appliances, and fixtures, which are rented for Resident’s exclusive
use, in good order and condition; that all rooms on the premises and all appliances and fixtures on the premises must be
able to be used for their intended purpose(s);
(d) not to willfully or wantonly destroy, deface, damage, impair or remove any part of the structure or dwelling unit or the
facilities, equipment, or appurtenances thereto or to permit any person on the premises, to do any such thing;
(e) to occupy the premises as a residence, utilizing portions thereof for living, sleeping, cooking or dining purposes only which
were respectively designed or intended to be used for such purposes.
(f) to leave the premises in the same condition as it was received, subject to normal wear and tear, as its condition permits.
(g) to return the premises, upon move-out to the same level of cleanliness it was in at the inception of the tenancy.
(h) to pay Owner/Agent for costs to repair, replace or rebuild any portion of the premises damaged by the Resident,
Resident’s guests or invitees.
(i) to promptly advise Owner/Agent of any items requiring repair, such as locks or light switches. Resident shall notify the
Owner/Agent of any leaks, drips, water fixtures that do not shut off properly, including, but not limited to, a toilet, or other.
FYI, in a part of their lease agreement, there is a move in check list which they have signed it and by that have already accepted that every item in the list was clean in the time of their move in. ( Clean items are indicated by CLN in the list.) I am attaching this part of the lease for the audiences to see. Considering that, my question is that
1- In the state of California, in case that landlord does the cleaning and repairs beyond wear and tear after tenant’s move out, how much the tenants shall be charged per hour for the labor?
2- I believe that my recent tenants were already aware of the condition of the house while they moved out, and for this reason they did not leave their forwarding address for me. With this situation, would it be enough to fill the information as the result of my final inspection and compare them with the items in the list, and just mention the time I spent for cleaning every item times $X per hour in front of the item?
I thought cleaning had to be done by a professional cleaning company, you needed an invoice, etc. - in order to be able to charge for cleaning? Maybe diff. states? maybe I'm wrong?
I thought cleaning had to be done by a professional cleaning company, you needed an invoice, etc. - in order to be able to charge for cleaning? Maybe diff. states? maybe I'm wrong?
CA allows landlords to bill for damage repairs they do themselves. Unfortunately, it's seldom what a landlord thinks they will receive.
The first think many courts do is disallow any repairs that the tenant could have done if a proper walk through inspection as conducted. This is usually the small stuff like cleaning or minor repairs.
Second, some Judges are sticklers over the wording of the CC that says "landlord employees". Those judges wont allow a landlord to bill their time but will allow the landlord to bill for the time their employee spend repairing damages.
Third you may have Judge that will ask to see estimates from a professional service so they have some supporting basis for the time it takes. The last thing a Judge wants to do is see professional services give estimates in the 5 - 8 hour range but the landlord is billing for 20 hours because they are poor cleaners who are just slow.
And the fourth problem is many Judges already have a pretty good notion how long things take and will impose their own hours/cost when a landlord does the work themselves. Some Judges will disallow all charges if they believe the landlord is just being a arse or padding time and cost.
My house in California was rented for three years by a 3-person family.
Thanks for inputs in advance
In the future... don't wait until three years pass before checking in with (visiting) tenants
to observe or even formally inspect YOUR PROPERTY for condition and damages and even
just the standards of housekeeping being maintained.
Maybe then you wouldn't renew or extend tenancy for multiple years...
and/or would have put them on notice to step up their cleaning effort.
If your lease doesn't describe such reasonable expectations for how YOUR PROPERTY
should be treated ...then the first step should be to get that language into your lease.
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