State Specific Question About: CALIFORNIA (CA)

If that were here, I would just keep his security for skipping out early and state in the SD return letter that the deposit is void due to insufficient notice to vacate.

In California, you may have to pay HIS rent for the next 6 month, surrender the keys to your unit to the authorities and fold his laundry. Sorry, that was a joke.

I would imagine you should be able to charge his security against the time the unit is vacant due to his early departure, but again it's CA, so who knows.

Send the accounting within 21 days of when he vacated the property. In the accounting withhold from deposit damages and rent that should have been paid. You could state that additional charges will be forth coming until you can rent the property.

He did give notice that he was moving and breaking the lease for a variety of reasons. He cited pests in his notice, but the exterminator didn't find anything. He basically started staging his exit a month prior to leaving.

This is an email he sent when I went to collect his unit keys:

Now that I'm fully moved out of that apartment, and due to the aforementioned reasons for moving out I am formally requesting a refund for the full amount I've paid into the lease, an amount totaling 10,762$. If you refuse this I will take you to court.

He wants a refund for the full amount he paid while living there? Hahaha, no! Just ignore him and handle the SD within your local laws.

Good that your had an exterminator look and state he couldn't find anything. You might need him in court.

Asking for all his rent back is just silly and he knows it. With asking for over $10K back, won't he need a lawyer to go to court? He'll probably not be able to get a free one for that, at least.

If he broke his lease without a good reason, then in CA, he owes the value of lost rent beyond what he can prove that landlord could have reasonably avoided.

To the extent that he owes lost rent, it may be deducted from the SD. Be sure to send your accounting on time, deduct only for what you are owed, and make clear how you arrived at each item.

Thank you for having posted the status on the tenant, and I commend you for having braved the nasty unrealistic crazy email about him wanting you to pay him or else? Thanks to everyone who chimed in about what to do, and please post information about prospective tenants in case you need help fielding them. The rental market seems to have dramatically cooled down all over Silicon Valley and hopefully, the market is ok in your area.

WMH posted: "Start marketing. If you get it re-rented, nothing to go to collection about?"

I know this is how it goes, but there SHOULD be something to make up for our time and energies that go into listing and showing and screening, don't you think?

When I rent one of our properties with a 12 month lease (our standard), I do so under the assumption that I will not have to be marketing it again for another 12 months MINIMUM.