Category: Uncategorized

AB 1482 is the floor, not the ceiling. Los Angeles, San Francisco, Santa Monica, Oakland and dozens of other cities cap increases lower, restrict evictions harder, and add remedies state law lacks.

The rental application gauntlet has price controls: screening fees are capped, receipts and reports are owed, and junk move-in charges beyond the deposit cap are recoverable.

Every tenant dispute — deposit, eviction, increase, fees — eventually becomes a records contest. The tenant with the cleaner ledger wins, and building one takes minutes a month.

That 100-dollar late fee plus 10 dollars a day clause reads like law but usually is not. California treats penalty clauses skeptically — late fees must approximate real damages, and most do not.

For covered units, California caps annual rent increases at 5 percent plus local inflation, never more than 10 percent — and increases above the cap are simply void.

Security deposit suits are the friendliest cases in small claims: clear statute, documentary proof, a doubling penalty, and landlords who frequently fail the paperwork requirements.

California gives tenants a look at the deduction list before moving out — with time to fix things and keep the money. Landlords are required to offer it; almost no tenant uses it.

Faded paint, worn carpet paths, nail holes from pictures — none of it is yours to pay for. The deposit covers damage beyond ordinary living, and the burden of proving it sits with the landlord.

Twenty-one days after you hand back the keys, the deposit clock rings. Miss it, pad it, or fake it, and the landlord owes the full deposit back — plus up to twice more as a bad-faith penalty.

The era of first, last, and double deposit is over. California capped security deposits at one month’s rent — and overcharges are recoverable the day they are collected.