Security Deposit Dispute

By kirby0523

Hello,
We moved out of a home we had been renting for 3 years this September. We gave a 60 day notice and our landlord never once sent us a written notice informing us of our right to request an initial inspection. I asked for one (studied the laws since he has been very scary and a bit crazy since we had moved in) and nor he or his wife made any attempts to set up an inspection with me. When the move out day came, we had already cleaned the home and cleaned the carpets ourselves (didn’t hire anyone professionally) and when we did our final inspection, our landlord’s wife (he was overseas….it was the first time we had met his wife in 3 years) indicated she did not see anything that we would be charged for. 4 weeks later and one week after the 21 days per CA state law to return a deposit, we got our refund in the mail and our landlord has taken out $520.00 for cleaning the carpets and the home professionally. These carpets were spotless and in extremely good shape for over 10 year old carpets. We left no indelible stains or tears, and we scrubbed that house clean. But it was all a surprise to us since we were told there was nothing being deducted and we signed the final inspection sheet that indicates such.

I have tried to be reasonable with him in returning a portion of the deposit but feel like I am within my rights to file a judgment against him and request the deposit plus punitive and statutory damages as he is fighting me, causing undue stress and being very unreasonable.

My question is, can he withhold $520.00 of our deposit legally after we were told we would get it back and no deductions were made?

Thanks in advance for you help….

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