Landlord Won't Return Deposit San Diego, CA

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Landlord Won't Return Deposit San Diego, CA

Chase Cline
Investor · Corpus Christi, TX-Texas · Member since 2015 · 81 posts · 56 votes

We rented a vacation rental property in the Ocean Beach neighborhood of San Diego from 1/16/16 - 4/16/16. We paid a $2,500 deposit and $2,500/month for a total of $10,000. Upon departure, we went through a walk-through with the property manager (who even recorded this walk-through on his GoPro) and he said without hesitation that the place looked great and we should be getting our full deposit back. I have sent probably 30 communication attempts in the past few months and haven't heard anything from the owner of the property who handles the money. I know this owner is getting these messages because when we were first inquiring on the property he was very responsive. Obviously the 21 day limit to return out deposit is up by now and I have sent 4 separate letters using Certified Mail requesting our deposit back to every address I could find for this guy/company. The only thing left for us to do is move forward with a lawsuit in small claims court. So my question is, if we move forward in small claims everything I have read states that we will likely be getting double our deposit amount back for a "bad faith" penalty. Is this accurate? If so, would our initial claim be for $5k or for our original deposit amount if $2,500 and the judge will double it? Surprisingly enough, the property manager has still been in contact with me and apparently is really sick of this owner not refunding people's deposits and has even told me to drag him through the court system to teach him a lesson. He also stated that he has only seen this guy refund ONE deposit since they started renting back in 2015. I looked this company up in the city records and there have been multiple lawsuits against them and there is already a current lawsuit for the exact same issue from a couple that rented one of the other units on the property while we were there. How can he get away with this over and over? Public Service Announcement: DO NOT RENT FROM LIGHTHOUSE RESIDENTIAL, LLC OR YOU WILL NOT GET YOUR DEPOSIT BACK. The property manager says there have been at least 10 people with the same issue. The properties are at 5063 Long Branch Ave and 5065 Long Branch Ave. San Diego, CA 92107. SAVE YOURSELF THE HASSLE AND DO NOT RENT FROM THESE GUYS!

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Brandon L.
Real Estate Agent · Falls Church · Member since 2012 · 2k+ posts · 1k+ votes
10y

@Chase Cline have you retained an attorney? these seem like questions that are best fit for an attorney representing you. 

My advice would be to send a demand/intent to sue letter certified/return receipt requested, then speak with a lawyer about the merits of the case.

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  • Account Closed
    Real Estate Investor · Rancho Santa Fe , CA · Member since 2016 · 323 posts · 107 votes
    10y
    Chase Cline you can totally represent your self, in California or anywhere I think I'm small claims, you should maybe at least do a 1 hour consultation pay a lawyer, if you want or do a lot of research on the matter back in college we even painted details ourself cause my roommates and I wanted deposit here in San Diego, UTC he didn't give us our money so we went to small claims and we won the original deposit amount and that's it, so he had 30 days or so to pay us back its been 7 years now people usually get along with this kind of things is terrible.
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  • Justin S.
    Investor · Jackson, OH · Member since 2014 · 64 posts · 20 votes
    10y

    @Account Closed will be limited to the $10,000.00. It just depends on Chase's goals. Just get the 2,500?  Small claims should be fine. Attempt to teach a lesson?  Small Claims may limit his ability. Again, a consult with an attorney is definitely worth the time. 

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  • Dan H.Pro Member
    Investor · Poway, CA · Member since 2015 · 7k+ posts · 8k+ votes
    10y

     I'm not a lawyer but I will be surprised if you can recover anything for an unpermitted unit.  There are many all over San Diego county.  

    I do hope you can recover your deposit and penalties.

    Landlords like him reflect poorly on all landlords similar to bad tenants reflect badly on all tenants.  If you leave a place in nice condition (clean and no damage) while abiding by the lease you deserve your deposit be returned   

    Good luck

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  • Joe SplitrockPro Member
    Moderator
    Rental Property Investor · Sioux Falls, SD · Member since 2015 · 9k+ posts · 18k+ votes
    10y

    I am not a lawyer, but one thought that came to mind is this sounds like fraud. There is a systematic effort to take money from people illegally. This is different than accidentally forgetting to return one deposit. If that can be proven, the business owner and even his property manager could be prosecuted. The property manager is knowingly renting to people who he knows will never get their deposit back. He openly states he is sick of the owner doing this and he stated you should get all your money back. Ultimately he is party to the crime and he may be participating as the buffer in the middle to keep people from finding the owner. An employee can be held criminally liable when they are participating in illegal activity. Keep any written proof you can of his activity.

    The challenge with hiring a lawyer is the $2500 will be gone in no time in lawyers fees. You may get a judgement for your lawyers fees, but then collecting could be hard. You are dealing with a criminal who is probably good at hiding his money or spending it! It is probably not worth your time or money to pursue this unless you do it on your own. The $2500 is lost. Do you want to lose another $3000 trying to get it? 

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  • Nicole S.
    Investor · Seattle, WA · Member since 2015 · 195 posts · 101 votes
    10y

    @Chase Cline

    I didn't see this mentioned yet but if I missed it, my apologies. If he is in violation of local zoning and land use code, send a notice to the city. At least in Seattle, they follow-up on those and there are consequences. Additionally, if the property is part of an association, you can tip them off about the misuse. Some associations don't allow short-term rentals or business being conducted on their property. This won't get your money back though. 

    Have these other folks been successful in getting their money back? I have learned time and time again, you can spend a ton of money on legal and get your settlement, but getting the actual money is the hard part. Sometimes you end up throwing good money after bad. I would take the $2,500 to small claims and be happy if I got that back. If you want to go for your $10k plus you'd have to hire an attorney, that's not a small claims matter. If this guy has several pending lawsuits he might just dissolve his LLC or file for bankruptcy. I've been down this road several times and when it comes to people that steal money, it's usually gone and very difficult to get back, regardless of what a judge says. Good luck!

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  • Neil Henderson
    Specialist · Carolina Beach, NC · Member since 2016 · 390 posts · 496 votes
    10y

    It's small potatoes in the grand scheme of things but it is very much against AirBnB's terms of service to do an outside transaction. Don't ever do that again! When a guest or host asks to make a booking "offline" it's an immediate red flag, not to mention payments with cashiers checks or money orders. Had you booked through AirBnB, you'd at least had an additional layer of protection.

    If they are still operating a listing on AirBnB, definitely send them a complaint to get them to ban the host.

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  • Kevin FoxPro Member
    Real Estate Agent · San Diego, CA · Member since 2014 · 1k+ posts · 635 votes
    10y

    Hey @Chase Cline

    Id definitely recommend you consult with a lawyer. My understanding is similair to @Justin R.'s in that you'd likely have a harder time getting back the rents than you would the deposit. The code violations are of no relation to the deposit issue, at least that's how it appears based on the information you provided.

    Keep us updated (as much as you're allowed) if you move forward with litigation. 

    0Reply
  • Account Closed
    San Jose, CA · Member since 2015 · 4k+ posts · 3k+ votes
    10y
    Originally posted by @Account Closed:

    Following this one.

    On the judgment recovery,  you don't automatically get a check.  You have to pursue.  Google "how to recover a judgment" if you don't know how.  Much of the process is state-specific.  Even more specific on the county level (sometimes).

    Cool thing is, you can attach ALL his assets immediately upon winning.  Have the sherriff seize his vehicles.  Garnish his wages.  File on his house.  He won't be able to do anything until he takes care of it.  Don't do it piecemeal.   Rain hell fire down on him all at once.  I HATE bullies.  When they get a taste of their own medicine, they start to understand.

    Make certain you do interrogatories during the case.  You want to know everything about this d****e-wad in order to pursue.

     This is absolutely true.  And to the others who mentioned they won against their landlord and haven't received payment - in CA, the sheriff will go collect the money from a place of business.  For instance, stand in the management office and take the rent checks as they come in, too.

    Here is a great document that is on the CA courts website about how to go about collecting on a judgment in CA, including using the sheriff, levying bank accounts, putting a lien on their vehicles through the DMV, etc. :

    http://www.courts.ca.gov/partners/documents/collec...

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  • J.R. St Julien
    Real Estate Agent · San Diego, CA · Member since 2016 · 28 posts · 4 votes
    10y
    Wish you the best Chase. This is a very unfortunate situation.
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