Landlord Won't Return Deposit San Diego, CA
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!