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california security deposit - rental management?

my husband and i rented a house for a year through a rental management business. they did not receive the keys until aug 27 but the end of our 30 day notice ended on aug 30. 21 days is the required time frame for the security deposit or the itemized list to be mailed out. on sep 27 we called since we didn't receive anything in the mail and we basically got the run around. all we could find out was the house had already been rented out, they didn't know how much we were to get back, and the person in charge has been busy with clients and couldn't be bothered and we wouldn't know anything till monday. we demanded them to figure it out as they passed the 21 days. well that night i did my research on security deposits and found on the department of consumer affairs that since they didn't send anything that they forfeit their right to hold any of the money to pay for any cleaning or repairs. we shampooed the carpets and cleaned like crazy. only thing we could find out from them(over the phone) was that the owner didn't like the paint color we did in the living room. we were told it would be fine as long as it wasn't some crazy color like green. plus there was nothing in the lease about paint. so the next day i called myself and told them that what i found and stated my case clearly in the calmest voice i could get. i couldn't talk to the person in charge of the deposits so i left a message. i was informed she would be in within an hour so i called back about 2 hours late. same response...she would be in in an hour. so this time i told them "i don't want to take this any farthur but she needs to know that we will report them to the bbb department of consumer affairs and department of real estate." we drove 4 hours to get to the rental office. she states its the owner who is in charge of fiving us our deposit and that she hasn't given them anything. so who is at fault here? we got there and she did promise to have the money there tomorrow(monday). the full $1000. since its in our lease that the owner would hold the deposit what action can we take against the business? they made it sound like they couldn't force the owner to pay us. "we can't cut off our nose to spite our face" is what one man said. i mean, they are in this business to help owners that want to rent their property out.

Public Comments

1. You can take them to small claims court since it is over $700.00 and sue them. To file a claim will cost you about $60.00. Heres the court forums...Ask these people because they know what they are talking about. I would copy and paste everything you just said on yahoo answers into one of their forums.