California security deposit law in 2026: the AB 2801 guide for landlords

• Deposit cap

  The rule: One month's rent, but up to two months for a landlord who is a natural person (or an LLC whose members are all natural persons) owning no more than two residential rental properties with no more than four dwelling units total offered for rent. Not available against a prospective tenant who is a servicemember. Does not reach security collected or demanded before July 1, 2024.

  Source: AB 12, Civ. Code §1950.5, operative July 1, 2024

• Return deadline

  The rule: 21 calendar days after the tenant returns possession

  Source: Civ. Code §1950.5

• Itemized statement

  The rule: Required whenever any amount is withheld

  Source: Civ. Code §1950.5

• Receipts

  The rule: Attach receipts or invoices when repair and cleaning deductions exceed $125 total

  Source: Civ. Code §1950.5

• What may be deducted

  The rule: A reasonable amount necessary to return the unit to its condition at the inception of the tenancy, exclusive of ordinary wear and tear

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

• Move-in photos

  The rule: Required only for tenancies beginning on or after July 1, 2025

  Source: AB 2801, Civ. Code §1950.5

• Move-out and post-repair photos

  The rule: Required beginning April 1, 2025

  Source: AB 2801, Civ. Code §1950.5

• Pre-move-out inspection

  The rule: Written offer required; inspection on request

  Source: Civ. Code §1950.5

• Bad-faith statutory damages

  The rule: Up to 2x the deposit, in addition to actual damages, where a court finds the retention was in bad faith. Discretionary: it does not attach on its own.

  Source: Civ. Code §1950.5

Now the details, because with this statute, the details are where the arguments happen.

AB 2801 amended Civil Code section 1950.5 to make photographic documentation a duty when deducting from a security deposit. There are three distinct photo obligations, and they phased in on two different dates.

1. Move-in photos: tenancies beginning on or after July 1, 2025

For any tenancy that starts on or after July 1, 2025, the landlord must photograph the unit at the start of the tenancy (at or immediately before the tenant takes possession). These photos are the baseline. When you later claim the tenant damaged something, the move-in photos are what establish that the damage wasn't already there.

If your tenancy began before July 1, 2025, the move-in photo requirement doesn't reach back: there is no statutory move-in photo for that tenancy at all, and you are not in breach for lacking one. The move-out and post-repair requirements below still apply to you, which means those photos have to carry the entire "was it already like that?" argument by themselves. That is precisely why a voluntary move-in record is the gap worth closing: photographing at move-in is a statutory duty for new tenancies and the practical answer for everyone else.

2. Move-out photos: effective April 1, 2025

Beginning April 1, 2025, before deducting for repairs or cleaning, the landlord must photograph the unit after the tenant returns possession but before any repairs or cleaning are done. The sequence matters. Photos taken after your handyman has already been through the unit document your repair, not the tenant's damage, and they can't do the job the statute assigns to move-out photos.

3. Post-repair photos: effective April 1, 2025

Also beginning April 1, 2025, the landlord must photograph the unit after the repair or cleaning work is completed. This is the piece landlords most often miss, because it feels redundant. It isn't: the post-repair photo is how the tenant (and, if it comes to that, a judge) sees that the money deducted corresponds to work actually performed. Damage photo, receipt, repair photo: that's the complete story of one deduction.

The delivery requirement

The photographs don't sit in your camera roll. AB 2801 requires that they be delivered to the tenant along with the itemized statement. A statement that lists "$180, cabinet hinge repair" with no photos attached hasn't met the delivery duty for a repair or cleaning deduction. Practically, every deduction line should arrive with its move-in photo (for tenancies where one is required), its move-out photo, its post-repair photo, and its cost documentation.

Say the consequence precisely, because the shorthand overstates it: the statute does not declare a photo-less deduction void. It creates a duty, it exposes bad-faith retention to statutory damages, and it means that if the tenant disputes the charge, you have no exhibit for it.

One more limitation worth knowing: AB 2801 also narrowed what a deduction may be. It must be a reasonable amount necessary to return the unit to the condition it was in at the inception of the tenancy, exclusive of ordinary wear and tear (§1950.5). Professional carpet or house cleaning can't be charged as a routine line item on every turnover, only where it is reasonably necessary to reach that starting condition. The test is reasonable necessity, not a flat ban.

California gives landlords 21 calendar days from the date the tenant returns possession (§1950.5) to do two things:

1. Refund the portion of the deposit the tenant is owed, and
2. Deliver an itemized statement for any amount withheld, now with photographs attached.

Three things landlords get wrong about this clock:

• It starts at possession, not convenience. The 21 days run from when the tenant vacates and returns possession. Not from when you inspect, not from when your contractor calls back, not from when you get around to it.
• Calendar days, not business days. Weekends and holidays count.
• Both halves are required. A statement without the refund, or a refund without the statement, doesn't satisfy the statute. Mailing a check on day 25 with a perfect statement is still late.

Now the part the internet gets wrong. Missing the deadline in good faith is expensive, but it does not by itself erase a real damage claim. What a late statement costs you is the statute's deduct-and-retain shortcut: the deposit goes back, and each item of damage then has to be proven separately, by a preponderance of the evidence, with the burden on you. The California Supreme Court held that a good-faith late statement does not by itself erase a real damage claim; the claim simply stops being self-executing. Granberry v. Islay Investments (1995) 9 Cal.4th 738. A bad-faith failure to follow the procedure is different: it can cost you the right to claim any of the deposit.

That is still a bad trade you never want to make. Losing a self-executing right and picking up a proof burden is worth considerably more than the polish on the statement. A timely, imperfect statement beats a late, perfect one.

If your total deductions for repairs and cleaning exceed $125, you must attach receipts or invoices to the itemized statement showing what the work cost and who performed it. Two refinements:

• Under $125, the tenant can still request receipts. Even when the total falls under the threshold, the tenant can request the documentation within 14 days of receiving the statement, and you then have 14 days to provide it. Treat receipts as always required and you'll never be caught out.
• The tenant can waive receipts, but only in a signed waiver given at or after notice to end the tenancy (or within 60 days before a fixed-term lease ends). A clause in the original lease won't do it. Don't assume it.

What if the work isn't done by day 21? The statute anticipates this. You may include a good-faith estimate in the itemized statement, identifying the contractor where applicable, and then deliver the actual receipts within 14 days of the work being completed. This is the one legitimate way to finalize costs after the deadline, and it only works if the estimated deduction appeared in the timely statement. What you cannot do is send a statement and then invent new deductions after the 21 days have run. The estimate mechanism finishes documenting a claim you already made; it doesn't open the door to new ones.

Long before AB 2801, California required something easy to overlook because nothing in a move-out prompts it: once a tenancy is ending, the landlord must give the tenant written notice of their right to request an initial inspection before move-out (§1950.5).

How it works when the tenant says yes:

• The inspection happens no earlier than two weeks before the end of the tenancy.
• You must give 48 hours' written notice of the inspection date and time, unless both parties waive the notice in writing.
• At the inspection, you give the tenant an itemized statement of proposed repairs or cleaning: the things that would become deductions if left as they are.
• The tenant then has the remainder of the tenancy to cure those items themselves.

Here's why this procedure deserves your respect: the statement you hand over at that inspection constrains your final one. It is not a ceiling, though. You may still deduct for items the tenant never cured, for damage occurring after the inspection, and for damage the inspection could not reveal because the tenant's possessions were in the way (§1950.5). Skip the offer, botch the notice, or wing the inspection, and deductions that might otherwise have been perfectly reasonable become open to a procedural challenge.

If the tenant declines the inspection or doesn't respond, document the written offer and the non-response. The obligation is to offer properly, not to force an inspection on an unwilling tenant.

Nothing in AB 2801 changed the oldest rule in deposit law: ordinary wear and tear is not deductible. Faded paint, minor scuffs, carpet worn flat in the walking path, small nail holes from picture hanging: that's the cost of being in the rental business, not damage. Deductions are for damage beyond normal use: the broken cabinet hinge, the burn mark, the hole in the drywall, the carpet stain that won't come out.

What AB 2801 changed is your ability to show the difference. A photo pair (the intact hinge in March next to the broken one in April) makes the wear-versus-damage conversation short. With no photos, it comes down to two people's memories, and there is nothing on the table for anyone to look at.

Two distinct consequences, often blurred together:

• Loss of the deduct-and-retain shortcut. A good-faith late or defective statement doesn't extinguish a real damage claim, but it does mean the deposit goes back and each item has to be proven separately, by a preponderance, with the burden on you (Granberry v. Islay Investments (1995) 9 Cal.4th 738). You go from a self-executing right to a claim you have to make out.
• Bad-faith statutory damages, up to 2x the deposit, if a court so finds. Under Civil Code §1950.5, where a court finds the landlord retained the deposit in bad faith, it may award up to twice the deposit in statutory damages, in addition to actual damages. Both qualifiers matter: "up to" is a discretionary ceiling, and the bad-faith finding is the court's to make. On a $2,400 deposit, $2,400 returned plus up to $4,800 in statutory damages is $7,200, the most a court may award on those two items: a ceiling, not a forecast and not a typical outcome.
• Your time. Preparing for small claims, filing, and a court day are real costs, but they are not legal exposure and we don't fold them into the figure above.

The practical takeaway isn't fear. It's that the statute rewards process. What a photo-backed, itemized, on-time statement does is give the tenant the same evidence a court would look at, at the point where they're deciding whether they disagree with you.

Run this on every turnover. It's organized by moment, because that's how the statute works.

At move-in (required for tenancies starting on or after July 1, 2025; recommended for all)

• Photograph the unit's condition, room by room, before or as the tenant takes possession
• Keep originals with timestamps intact; store them where you'll find them in four years
• Check the deposit against the AB 12 cap: one month's rent for most landlords, or up to two months if you're a natural person (or an LLC whose members are all natural persons) owning no more than two residential rental properties totalling no more than four units offered for rent; the two-month exception is not available when the prospective tenant is a servicemember, and servicemember tenancies have additional rules to check

When the tenancy is ending

• Send written notice of the tenant's right to request a pre-move-out inspection
• If requested: schedule within the final two weeks, give 48-hour written notice (or both sign a written waiver)
• At the inspection, hand over an itemized statement of proposed repairs, and let the tenant cure

At move-out (before any work is done)

• Photograph the same areas as move-in, after the tenant returns possession and before any repairs or cleaning
• Note the exact date possession was returned: the 21 days are counted from it
• Collect the tenant's forwarding address

Building the itemized statement

• Every repair or cleaning deduction has a move-in photo (where required), a move-out photo, and a cost document
• Receipts or invoices attached if repair and cleaning deductions exceed $125 (best practice: always)
• Work not finished? Use a good-faith estimate, then deliver receipts within 14 days of completion
• No charges for ordinary wear and tear; cleaning charged only where reasonably necessary to reach the unit's condition at the start of the tenancy, not as a routine line item
• Photograph completed repairs and include those photos too

Sending it

• Refund, itemized statement and photographs delivered within 21 calendar days of possession being returned
• Deliver the statement by personal delivery or first-class mail to the address the tenant provided. If they provided none, use the unit they vacated. Email only to an account the tenant provided, if you have both agreed. If the tenant paid rent or the deposit electronically, the statute provides for the refund to be sent electronically to an account the tenant designates. Confirm the current statutory requirements before sending the refund any other way
• Keep a copy of everything: statement, photos, receipts, proof of sending

Does AB 2801 apply to tenancies that started before July 1, 2025?

The move-in photo requirement applies only to tenancies beginning on or after July 1, 2025. If yours started earlier, there is no statutory move-in photo and you are not in breach for not having one. The move-out and post-repair photo requirements took effect April 1, 2025, and apply to move-outs after that date regardless of when the tenancy began.

What happens if I miss the 21-day deadline?

Not what you've probably read. If the miss was in good faith, you don't lose the underlying damage claim; you lose the statute's deduct-and-retain shortcut. A bad-faith failure can cost you the right to claim any of the deposit. The deposit goes back, and each item of damage then has to be proven separately, by a preponderance, with the burden on you. But a good-faith late statement does not by itself erase a real damage claim (Granberry v. Islay Investments (1995) 9 Cal.4th 738). Separately, where a court finds bad faith it may award statutory damages of up to twice the deposit, in addition to actual damages. If the deadline is close, send the refund and a timely statement with good-faith estimates rather than a late statement with perfect receipts.

Do I need photos for a deduction for unpaid rent?

The photo requirements attach to repair and cleaning deductions. Unpaid-rent deductions still belong on the itemized statement, but they aren't the kind of claim a photograph documents.

Is a signed paper checklist enough anymore?

On its own, no. A checklist of adjectives ("good," "fair," "worn") is not photographic documentation, and AB 2801's requirements are specifically about photographs. A checklist can still be a useful supplement to the photo record.

We build Before You Go, a tool for this exact workflow: a guided move-in photo walkthrough both parties sign, move-out photos shown beside the move-in photos of the same spot where there is a move-in record, and an itemized statement built from lines that each need a photo and a cost document, with California's 21-day deadline tracked. We never hold or touch deposit money, and we never decide who is right about a line item. We document the evidence, and both parties see all of it.

Everything in the checklist above works with a camera and a calendar; the app makes it hard to miss a step. It's free for up to 2 units.