[quote=urbanrealtor]It only sounds good if you are a landlord.
Contract law is not some western Koran.
Contracts get broken all the time.
I actually specialize in breaking lending and real estate contracts.
Its how I pay the bills.
Circumstances change and consequences (like a withheld deposit) are the remedy.
This is about negotiating what is an appropriate consequence.
But back to the specific issues mentioned:
The law allows for 3 types of deduction from deposit:
-unpaid rent (vacant days may arguably qualify)
-damage beyond wear and tear
-cleaning
There is no provision for some sort of non-specific “breach of contract damages”.
That would be an illegal deduction.
Doing construction and fraudulently describing them as being necessary to repair extraordinary damage (as alleged by the OP) is by definition acting in bad faith. This is easy to clear up as receipts and specific clarification must be produced upon demand. “Reasonable disagreement” is hard (though not impossible) to imagine.
That would also be an illegal deduction.
There is no provision for the change in the rental market or the need for an agent.
Those would also be illegal deductions.
In this case, I think the injured party would be seen as the tenant.
Further, deducting for the days of vacancy could (though would not necessarily) require that the landlord document that he advertised the property as soon as he got the notice (which the OP said he gave).
Finally, there is the bad faith again and the treble damages. http://www.dca.ca.gov/publications/landlordbook/sec-deposit.shtml%5B/quote%5D
