Ach deposit authorization form template, Lanlord or tenant Law isn’t among my general areas of practice, but like every lawyer, I’ve friends who often ask my advice about legal problems with which they’re faced. Recently, a friend asked for my help in corresponding with her former landlord seeing fees taken from her rental security deposit she felt were unwarranted.
As landlord/tenant issues are among the most common legal questions I receive from friends, I’d like to talk about rights and responsibilities concerning security deposits within this post. In the end I will incorporate a sample letter you can send to a landlord for return of your deposit. Please note all info in this post is specific to California law. The laws of your state or authority may differ. Many states provide tenant’s handbooks that would include important laws, or you should contact an attorney licensed in your jurisdiction for assistance.
A landlord has 28 days to register a deposit with a custodial or insurance type scheme. Info regarding the registration of this deposit must be provided to the renter. Under the Housing Act there is a prescribed format for information to be provided. The landlord can be taken to court by the tenant in which the information hasn’t been provided in the correct format. Tenants have the right to go back six years before taking action against the landlord.
Where the landlord fails to enroll the bond you will find hefty penalties. The landlord can have to pay the tenant a sum three times greater than the deposit; or they can have to repay all rent and a punishment or the landlord could lose the right to evict the tenant in the property the choice on the penalty is accepted by the court. Some landlords say they do not take deposits they just ask the tenant to pay two weeks rent in advance. If the tenant pays rent monthly and the landlord always has a float of one month’s rent this is the same as taking a deposit along with the rules concerning failure to enroll a deposit will apply.