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Landlord holding deposit, fight or pay?

nakedape said:
I call BS on the lawn being "dormant" in July-August. If you were unwilling to pay for water on the lawn you didn't use, that's a choice. But bringing it back to life before moving out would indemnify you against this part of the claim. Was the lawn green when you got there? The LL might understandably feel let down when the drivebys (and otherwise stellar tenant behavior) showed a green front lawn while returning to dust out back.

There's no way this is worth your time or energy. Work on a project that nourishes you or your family. Glad you could vent, now move on for your sake.
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I'll give you my venmo and you send me $600. That's 3 prehung doors I need to order. Worth a couple emails. Also, we lived there 6 years, every June-july it goes dormant and comes back.
 
littlebeast said:
i’m gonna have to ask my BIL about that one. he’s a master at obscure insults. half the time it sounds like shit that hasn’t been said since medieval times. unloads with a string of them (at random strangers being oblivious or rude in public). most often, i’m like wtf did you just say?!?!
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it's not obscure at all, you just didn't go through your early 20s with the right group of.... role models :laughing
 
900ss said:
I (we) own two San Jose condominiums, live in one, rent the other to my son for a paltry sum. These places rent for $3,400.00, and that's as far as this conversation goes. If he decides to move, I really don't know if I would rent it out for market value (rip-off sum) or sell it. I don't want to be a landlord really, and don't need the money. I do have an ex-neighbour (family) who just moved away that I would rent it to for my cost. Roughly $1,200.00 (Hoa plus property tax, insurance). The rental market is just stupid.
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Be careful with that as the IRS does not look kindly on renting to family well below market rents.

We have done it but then again all our not family rentals are well below market.
 
Dubbington said:
I'll give you my venmo and you send me $600. That's 3 prehung doors I need to order. Worth a couple emails. Also, we lived there 6 years, every June-july it goes dormant and comes back.
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he didn't read your post, he just responded to something in his head. Per CA law, you're not required to water landscaping on your dime if this is not explicitly defined in the lease, and even then, claims can be considered specious. You have a claim here which may award in excess of your claim.
 
Send something like this via email.

Dear landlord

I understand there are some items you have some concerns about, being the lawn and the cleaning fees. I will not agree to any additional fees you have listed as there is no damage to your property when we left on Aug 1st (photo were taken). The cleaning fee and grass would be considered normal wear and tear which is the landlords responsibility not the renters (photos were taken upon moving out). Regarding the deposit, California Civil Code § 1950.5(g) requires deposits to be returned to tenant's within 21 days of vacating the property or the property owner can be subject to damages of 2x the amount of the deposit. It has been well over 21 days since we vacated the property and yet to receive our deposit. I hope we can resolve this matter and move on, we expect a full refund ($$$$) of our deposit by 9.15.26 payment can be made via Zelle, Venmo or Check. If this matter is not resolved by end of day on 9.15.26, we will be forced to take action on our end.

Thank you for your attention to this matter and if you have any questions feel free to contact us.
 
sidewazzz said:
Send something like this via email.

Dear landlord

I understand there are some items you have some concerns about, being the lawn and the cleaning fees. I will not agree to any additional fees you have listed as there is no damage to your property when we left on Aug 1st (photo were taken). The cleaning fee and grass would be considered normal wear and tear which is the landlords responsibility not the renters (photos were taken upon moving out). Regarding the deposit, California Civil Code § 1950.5(g) requires deposits to be returned to tenant's within 21 days of vacating the property or the property owner can be subject to damages of 2x the amount of the deposit. It has been well over 21 days since we vacated the property and yet to receive our deposit. I hope we can resolve this matter and move on, we expect a full refund ($$$$) of our deposit by 9.15.26 payment can be made via Zelle, Venmo or Check. If this matter is not resolved by end of day on 9.15.26, we will be forced to take action on our end.

Thank you for your attention to this matter and if you have any questions feel free to contact us.
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Like the letter but certified mail with a receipt is a must for all legal paperwork as it gives you a paper trail and is CYA so they can't say they didn't get it.
 
Dubbington said:
I'll give you my venmo and you send me $600. That's 3 prehung doors I need to order. Worth a couple emails. Also, we lived there 6 years, every June-july it goes dormant and comes back.
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I stand corrected. There are a couple of heat dormant varieties that you could have. Seems like something they should know and no remediation is required. If the front is green, it’s a different type but she is probably ignorant about it as I was. Carry on.

You are still wasting time and effort, not because you’re wrong, but because she’s helpless and wants you to cover things. Once you get signed off put frozen shrimp behind an outlet or two if you’re still mad. I will Venmo $12.99 for jumbos from Costco.
 
GAJ said:
Be careful with that as the IRS does not look kindly on renting to family well below market rents.

We have done it but then again all our not family rentals are well below market.
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Really? I was not aware of this. That sucks!
 
Holeshot said:
I believe the 3X damages still exists in CA for landlord deposit fraud/ missing time limit. Yes, small claims if you believe LL is screwed up (legally).
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There's alot of places in various statutory codes that award treble damages, punitive damages, etc but the reality is, Judges tend to be pretty hesitant to award them, unless the behavior is super egregious.

Dubbs if you decide to take it to small claims, you can certainly recover the $300 for the lawn. You will also be able to recover the cleaning fee if she stated, in writing, that you didn't need to clean it because they were going to do repainting (promissory estoppel.) Probably not worth your time economically, but sometimes assholes need a lesson.
 
auntiebling said:
it's not obscure at all, you just didn't go through your early 20s with the right group of.... role models :laughing
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lol, i may have, but at that time i often had difficulty remembering the previous night (told the story before about not remembering buying a car until we woke up the next morning and saw it in our driveway). me: where did that come from? him: i think we may have bought it (he remembered walking off toward the dealership a few blocks away). me: no shit? him: no shit. so i guess you could say my ‘role models’ were of a different sort.
 
mercurial said:
Probably not worth your time economically, but sometimes assholes need a lesson.
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People tend to forget that ripoff/ lost capital is post tax income lost. IOW, Dubbs has lost more than the lawn/cleaning fee. Multiply the loss by 1.(tax rate). He's got another 15-20% roughly as a guesstimate. Replacement of the capital coming from Dubbs has a tax burden applied to it.
 
Good night to all (on BARF) and to all, a good night. Okay, the rest of the planet as well. Might as well share good tidings.
 
900ss said:
Really? I was not aware of this. That sucks!
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Indeed but there is a simple work around.

Charge close to market rent by raising rent as much as municipality will allow over a few years to ensure you are in "compliance" and simply gift the difference to your kid on a quarterly basis or similar.

Charging below-market rent to a family member causes the IRS to reclassify your rental property as a personal-use residence rather than a business investment. [1, 2]

Key Tax Consequences
    • Lost Deductions: You cannot deduct operating expenses, maintenance, repairs, or depreciation for the days rented below market value. [1, 2, 3]
    • Personal Use Days: Every day you rent the home below fair market value counts as a day of personal use. If this exceeds 14 days (or 10% of total rental days), the IRS treats the property as a personal residence. [1, 2]
    • Income Reporting: You must still report the rental income you receive on your tax return (typically as not-for-profit income on Schedule 1). [1]
    • Limited Deductions: Only mortgage interest and real estate taxes remain deductible, and only if you itemize deductions on Schedule A. [1]
    • No Loss Rents: You cannot claim rental losses or carryforward losses from the property. [1, 2]
 
Geoff, the work around is a lease of rooms w/ common area access. Unleased space is inventory.
 
If you have a 4 bedroom house, lease the rooms to "tenants" and include the rest of the space (kitchen, living room, etc) as "common area". Load factor the rooms w/ the common area as a % / number of rooms added back to the total footage (and cost) of the rooms. IOW, treat it as a commercial venture. If you only rent one room, the remaining rooms are inventory; nor personal assets.
 
Holeshot said:
If you have a 4 bedroom house, lease the rooms to "tenants" and include the rest of the space (kitchen, living room, etc) as "common area". Load factor the rooms w/ the common area as a % / number of rooms added back to the total footage (and cost) of the rooms. IOW, treat it as a commercial venture. If you only rent one room, the remaining rooms are inventory; nor personal assets.
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As a small landlord that would never be something I'd personally consider.

Simple gifting with near market rent for me would be the answer to not raise the ire of the irs.
 
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