Suggested Approaches to Security Deposit Deductions

(from "California Tenants, A Guide to Residential Tenants’ and Landlords’
Rights and Responsibilities" from the California Department of Consumer Affairs)

 California’s security deposit statute specifically allows the landlord to use a tenant’s security deposit for four purposes: 

1) For unpaid rent;

2) For cleaning the rental unit when the tenant moves out, but only to make the unit as clean as it was when the tenant first moved in;

3) For repair of damages, other than normal wear and tear, caused by the tenant or the tenant’s guests; and

4) If the lease or rental agreement allows it, for the cost of restoring or replacing furniture, furnishings, or other items of personal property (including keys), other than because of normal wear and tear.

 A landlord can withhold from the security deposit only those amounts that are reasonably necessary for these purposes. The security deposit cannot be used for repairing defects that existed in the unit before the tenant moved in, for conditions caused by normal wear and tear during a tenancy or previous tenancies, or for cleaning a rental unit that is as clean as it was when the tenant moved in.  

A rental agreement or lease can never state that a security deposit is “nonrefundable.” The statute limits the landlord’s deduction from the security deposit to an amount that is “reasonably necessary” for the listed purposes.  Unfortunately, the statute’s terms “reasonably necessary” and “normal wear and tear” are vague and mean different things to different people. The following suggestions are offered as practical guides for dealing with security deposit issues. While these suggestions are consistent with the law, they are not necessarily the law in this area. 

1. Costs of cleaning

A landlord may properly deduct from the departing tenant’s security deposit to make the rental unit as clean as it was when the tenant moved in.  A landlord cannot routinely charge each tenant for cleaning carpets, drapes, walls, or windows in order to prepare the rental unit for the next tenancy. Instead, the landlord must look at how well the departing tenant cleaned the rental unit, and may charge cleaning costs only if the departing tenant left the rental unit (or a portion of it) less clean than when he or she moved in.

 Reasonable cleaning costs would include the cost of such things as eliminating flea infestations left by the tenant’s animals, cleaning the oven, removing decals from walls, removing mildew in bathrooms, defrosting the refrigerator, or washing the kitchen floor. But the landlord could not charge for cleaning any of these conditions if they existed at the time that the departing tenant moved in.

 In addition, the landlord could not charge for the cumulative effects of wear and tear. Suppose, for example, that the tenant had washed the kitchen floor but that it remained dingy because of wax built up over the years. The landlord could not charge the tenant for stripping the built-up wax from the kitchen floor.  The landlord is allowed to deduct from the tenant’s security deposit only the reasonable cost of cleaning the rental unit. 

2. Carpets and Drapes—“Useful Life” Rule

Normal wear and tear to carpets, drapes and other furnishings cannot be charged against a tenant’s security deposit. Normal wear and tear includes simple wearing down of carpet and drapes because of normal use or aging, and includes moderate dirt or spotting. In contrast, large rips or indelible stains justify a deduction from the tenant’s security deposit for repairing the carpet or drapes, or replacing them if that is reasonably necessary. 

 One common method of calculating the deduction for replacement prorates the total cost of replacement so that the tenant pays only for the remaining useful life of the item that the tenant has damaged or destroyed. For example, suppose a tenant has damaged beyond repair an eight-year-old carpet that had a life expectancy of ten years, and that a replacement carpet of similar quality would cost $1,000. The landlord could properly charge only $200 for the two years’ worth of life (use) that would have remained if the tenant had not damaged the carpet. 

3. Repainting walls

One approach for determining the amount that the landlord can deduct from the tenant’s security deposit for repainting, when repainting is necessary, is based on the length of the tenant’s stay in the rental unit. This approach assumes that interior paint has a two-year life.  (Some landlords assume that interior paint has a life of three years or more.)

 Using this approach, if the tenant lived in the rental unit for two years or more, the tenant could not be charged for any repainting costs, no matter how dirty the walls were.

 4. Other damage to walls

Generally, minor marks or nicks in walls are the landlord’s responsibility as normal wear and tear (for example, worn paint caused by a sofa against the wall). Therefore, the tenant should not be charged for such marks or nicks. However, a large number of holes in the walls or ceiling that require filling with plaster, or that otherwise require patching and repainting, could justify withholding the cost of repainting from the tenant’s security deposit. In this situation, deducting for painting would be more likely to be proper if the rental unit had been painted recently, and less likely to be proper if the rental unit needed repainting anyway. Generally, large marks or paint gouges are the tenant’s responsibility.

 5. Common sense and good faith

Remember: These suggestions are not hard and fast rules. Rather, they are offered to help tenants and landlords avoid, understand and resolve security deposit disputes.  Security deposit disputes often can be resolved, or avoided in the first place, if the parties exercise common sense and good judgment, and deal with each other fairly and in good faith. For example, a landlord should not deduct from the tenant’s security deposit for normal wear and tear, and a tenant should not try to avoid responsibility for damages that the tenant has caused.

 The requirement that the landlord send the tenant copies of invoices and receipts with the itemized statement of deductions may help avoid potential security deposit disputes. Before sending these items to the tenant, the landlord has the opportunity to double check them to be sure that the amounts deducted are reasonable, accurate and reasonably necessary for a purpose specified by the security deposit statute.

 Before challenging the deductions, the tenant has the opportunity to review and carefully evaluate the documentation provided by the landlord. Straightforward conduct by both parties at this stage may avoid or minimize a dispute over deductions from the tenant’s security deposit.

 Especially in disputes about security deposits, overreaching by one party only invites the other party to take a hard line. Disputes that reach this level often become un-resolvable by the parties and wind up in court.