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Originally Posted by tvdango

I'm not sure if this works because my landlord is a lawyer. He may use his advantage; I know it's not fair and improper, though.

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Is he a practicing attorney? WOW!

I still stand by my advice of either going ahead with the lawsuit or send him the letter as I suggested. I think the key is that you need to point out in the letter that you know he is breaking the law. It is "just" a civil matter, but still... He may be less intimidated by a letter than a non-lawyer would be, but that way if you DO wind up suing him I think it strengthens your case and weakens his.

The only senerio I can guess is that the landlord may be waiting to be sued in order to counter sue for something, although he has nothing to sue me. This way, he can ignore anything until it happens.

The scenario I'd guess is that he's an attorney and used to his tenants being intimidated by this. Therefore he routinely makes a practice of not returning security deposits and usually the tenants are too scared of his being a lawyer to do anything about it.

As an attorney I don't believe he'd hesitate to sue you if he had anything to come after you for.

The landlord refused to receive my certified mail, and it was returned.

I guess he wants to go to a small claim court.

Is there a place like BBB for lawyers?

Save refusal and take it with you to court. Hopefully the judge will take that into consideration when he is deciding if your landlord is acting in bad faith.

I haven't rechecked the CA statute. But most state laws say that if the deposit is not returned according to statute, then the landlord forfeits the right to withhold anything from the deposit.

If the law provides for damages, I really can't imagine a landlord rolling the dice and risking double or treble damages just to keep the security.

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Originally Posted by ScottGem

If the law provides for damages, I really can't imagine a landlord rolling the dice and risking double or treble damages just to keep the security.

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I still think that's he's risking it because he's used to his tenants being intimidated by the fact that he's an attorney to the point where they don't wind up suing him.

I personally know landlords who routinely keep security deposits and RARELY get sued.

I hate it, because it gives all landlord's a bad image, but I don't think it's uncommon.