The California renter's guide to security deposits: document your home from day one

• How much can be asked

  What it means for you: One month's rent for most landlords, on top of the first month's rent. A landlord who is a natural person (or an LLC whose members are all natural persons) with no more than two residential rental properties and no more than four units in total may ask up to two months, but not from a renter who is a servicemember; servicemember tenancies have further rules this guide does not address. Applies to security demanded on or after July 1, 2024.

  Source: AB 12, Civ. Code §1950.5

• Nonrefundable deposits

  What it means for you: No lease may call any part of the security deposit nonrefundable.

  Source: Civ. Code §1950.5

• What it may be used for

  What it means for you: Unpaid rent, cleaning to return the unit to its condition when you moved in, repairing damage beyond ordinary wear and tear, and, where the lease says so, restoring or replacing furnishings. Ordinary wear and tear is never deductible.

  Source: Civ. Code §1950.5, as amended by AB 2801

• The 21 days

  What it means for you: Within 21 calendar days after you return possession, the landlord must refund what you are owed and send an itemized statement for anything withheld.

  Source: Civ. Code §1950.5

• Photos with the statement

  What it means for you: For repair and cleaning deductions, the landlord must photograph the unit after you leave and before any work, and again after the work, and send those photos with the statement (since April 1, 2025). For tenancies that began on or after July 1, 2025, the landlord must also have photographed the unit at the start, and those photos come with the statement too.

  Source: AB 2801, Civ. Code §1950.5

• Receipts

  What it means for you: Receipts or invoices must come with the statement when repair and cleaning deductions exceed $125 in total. Under that, you may ask for them within 14 days of receiving the statement.

  Source: Civ. Code §1950.5

• Pre-move-out inspection

  What it means for you: Once the tenancy is ending, the landlord must tell you in writing that you may request an inspection before you move out. If you request one, you receive an itemized list of proposed repairs or cleaning at the inspection, so you can fix things first. The notice is not required where the tenancy is ended by certain three-day notices.

  Source: Civ. Code §1950.5

The rest of this guide is those rows in order, as a timeline.

The statute's move-in photo duty belongs to the landlord, and only for tenancies that began on or after July 1, 2025. If yours started earlier, no statutory move-in photo exists for your tenancy at all. Either way, the photos that matter most to you are the ones you take yourself, on the day you get the keys, before the boxes come in.

What to photograph

• Every room from the doorway, then each wall, then the floor. Wide shots first, so a detail photo can be placed in its room later.
• Everything that is already worn or damaged: scuffs, stains, chips, a cracked tile, a loose handle, a stained carpet. Get close enough that a stranger could see it.
• Appliances, inside and out. Windows, blinds, screens. Under the sinks. Behind the toilet. The inside of the oven. The spots nobody looks at are the spots that turn up on a statement.
• Anything that does not work: a burner, an outlet, a lock. A short video of you trying it is fine.

Keep the dates

Your phone stores the date and time inside each photo. Keep the originals; a screenshot, or a photo forwarded through a chat app, can strip that information out. Back them up somewhere you will still have in a few years, because a deposit disagreement can arrive long after you have forgotten which folder they went in.

Put a copy in the landlord's hands, in writing

A photo only you have seen is a weaker exhibit than one you sent the landlord on day one. Email the landlord a dated note of the existing wear and damage, with the photos attached, and ask for a reply. If your landlord uses a shared record (more on that at the end), both of you hold the same photos from the start and nothing needs forwarding.

If your landlord gives you a move-in checklist, fill it in honestly and keep a signed copy. A checklist of words is weaker than a photograph, but it is still a dated statement both of you held.

Two habits during the lease decide a lot at the end.

• Report repairs in writing when they are needed, and keep the message. A leak you reported in March reads very differently from water damage the landlord first sees at move-out.
• Ask before you change anything. Paint, shelves, a smart lock, a garden bed: get written permission, and agree in writing whether it stays or goes back to how it was.

Ordinary wear and tear is the landlord's cost, not yours: faded paint, minor scuffs, carpet worn flat in the walking path, small nail holes from picture hanging. Damage beyond normal use is different: a burn mark, a hole in the drywall, a stain that will not come out, a broken cabinet door. That distinction is the heart of a deposit disagreement, and your move-in photos are what show which side of it a mark falls on.

Once a tenancy is ending, California requires the landlord to tell you in writing that you have the right to request an initial inspection before you move out, and to be present at it (§1950.5). The notice is not required where the tenancy is ended by certain three-day notices. Requesting the inspection is usually worth doing: it is the one moment in the process where you learn what the landlord is thinking of charging while you can still do something about it.

How it works

• The inspection happens no earlier than two weeks before the tenancy ends.
• The landlord gives 48 hours' written notice of the date and time, unless you both waive that notice in writing.
• You may be present. At the inspection, the landlord gives you an itemized statement of proposed repairs or cleaning: the items that would become deductions if left as they are.
• You then have the rest of the tenancy to fix those items yourself, within what your lease allows.

The proposed list shapes the final statement, but it is not a ceiling. The landlord may still deduct for items you did not fix, for damage that happens after the inspection, and for damage your belongings hid at the time (§1950.5). So clear the floors and open the closets before the inspection, and photograph each item after you fix it.

If you never receive the written notice, ask for the inspection in writing yourself, and keep the message. If no inspection is ever offered, that is a fact worth having on record.

The 21 days start when you return possession: keys back, your belongings out. The date matters, so make it unambiguous.

• Hand over the keys in person if you can, or note in writing when and where you left them, and keep that message.
• Photograph every room empty and cleaned, from the same angles as move-in, on the day you leave. It closes the record you started on day one.
• Give the landlord a forwarding address in writing. The statute sends the statement and the refund to the address you provide; if you provide none, they are mailed to the unit you just left.
• The statute provides for the refund to be sent electronically to an account you designate. If you paid rent or the deposit electronically and want it back the same way, designate that account in writing before you leave, and keep the message.

Within 21 calendar days after you return possession (weekends and holidays count), the landlord must do two things: refund the part of the deposit you are owed, and, for anything withheld, send an itemized statement.

What the statement must include

• Each deduction, itemized, with its amount.
• For repair and cleaning deductions, the photographs the statute requires, delivered with the statement: the unit after you returned possession and before any work, and again after the work was done. Where your tenancy began on or after July 1, 2025, the landlord's photos from the start of the tenancy come with the statement as well; they are the baseline the move-out photos are compared against.
• Receipts or invoices, if repair and cleaning deductions total more than $125: what the work cost and who did it. Where the landlord or their own staff did the work, the statement should describe the work, the time it took and the hourly rate charged, which the statute says must be reasonable.
• If work was not finished within the 21 days, the statement may carry a good-faith estimate (naming the contractor where applicable); the receipts then follow within 14 days of the work being completed. The estimate finishes documenting a claim already made; it does not let a new one be added later.

Under $125, you may still ask

If the deductions fall under $125 and no receipts came, you may request them in writing within 14 days of receiving the statement, and the landlord then has 14 days to provide them. Ask. The receipt is how you check that a $90 cleaning line was a $90 cleaning.

How it may be delivered

By personal delivery or first-class mail to the address you gave. If you gave none, it is mailed to the unit you just left. By email only if you agreed to that and provided the account. Keep the envelope or the email: the date it arrived is part of the record.

Read the statement one line at a time, next to your photos.

1. Match each line to a photo pair. Your move-in photo of that spot, and the landlord's move-out photo of it. If the mark was there on day one, say so, with the dated photo.
2. Separate wear from damage. Faded paint and carpet worn in the walking path are ordinary wear and tear and not deductible. Routine professional cleaning or carpet cleaning charged on every turnover is not what the statute allows either: cleaning may be charged only where it is reasonably necessary to return the unit to its condition at the start of the tenancy.
3. Ask for what is missing. No photo for a repair line, no receipt over $125, no description of the work: ask for it in writing.
4. Write once, clearly. One message to the landlord that lists the lines you dispute, why, and what you are asking for, with your dated photos attached. Keep the tone to the facts. Keep a copy.

If the 21 days pass with nothing

A statement that arrives after the 21 days does not by itself mean the whole deposit is yours. The California Supreme Court has held that a landlord who misses the procedure in good faith does not lose a real damage claim; what changes is that the deposit must be returned and each item of damage then has to be proven separately, with the burden on the landlord (Granberry v. Islay Investments (1995) 9 Cal.4th 738). A bad-faith failure to follow the procedure is different: it can cost the landlord the right to claim any of the deposit. The statute also gives a renter remedies where a court finds a landlord kept a deposit in bad faith; what they are, and whether they fit your facts, is a question for an attorney or a local tenant resource. Which applies in your case is a question for an attorney or a court, not for this guide.

If nothing arrives at all, write to the landlord asking for the refund and the statement, keep a copy, and see the next section.

Where disagreements go

Many California deposit disputes are heard in small claims court, where the hearing is short and informal, each side speaks for itself, and the judge weighs what each side says against what each side can show. That is why everything above is about documents: a dated photo pair, a written repair report, the itemized statement and your written reply are what a judge can look at. The California courts' self-help pages explain the small claims process and its dollar limit. For your own situation, talk to a licensed attorney or a local tenant resource.

My tenancy started before July 1, 2025. Does my landlord need move-in photos?

No statutory move-in photo exists for a tenancy that began before July 1, 2025, so the landlord is not in breach for lacking one. The move-out and post-repair photo requirements took effect April 1, 2025 and apply to any move-out after that date, whenever the tenancy began. Your own day-one photos may be the only baseline for your home, which is the best reason to take them.

Can the landlord keep part of my deposit for cleaning?

Only for cleaning reasonably necessary to return the unit to the condition it was in when you moved in, and never for ordinary wear and tear. Leave the place clean and photograph it clean; then any cleaning line can be checked against the photos.

Does my landlord have to pay interest on my deposit?

State law does not require it. Some cities do, under local ordinances this guide does not address; your city's rent board or housing department can tell you whether yours is one of them.

What if I never gave a forwarding address?

Under the statute, mailings go to the address you provided; if you provided none, they are mailed to the unit you just left. Give a forwarding address in writing before you go, and keep the message.

Before You Go is a shared record of the home, built for exactly the timeline above. When a landlord sets up the lease on it and invites you, the move-in walkthrough happens room by room on a phone, usually yours, with the date and time kept inside each photo. Both of you sign the record, and after that nobody can edit or delete a photo: not your landlord, not you, not us. At move-out, the move-out photos sit beside the move-in photos of the same spot. If the landlord deducts anything, each line on the statement links to its photos and its cost document, and you can approve or dispute each line from the same screen, with your objection kept on the record.

It is free for renters, now and later, including the PDF of the whole record you can download after the lease closes. We never hold deposit money, and we never decide who is right about a line.

Today the record begins when a landlord sets up the lease and invites you; there is no way to start one on your own yet, and our page for renters will say so when there is. If you have been invited and cannot find the email, you can send yourself a new link.