In california, if not stated in rental agreement, is landlord responsible for yard mainenance?

I recently moved out of a month-to month rental that I had resided in for 9+ years. Due to a sale of property, the new owner opted not to continue renting to me and I was given 60 days notice to vacate. I am now out and have a particularly excessive deduction in my security deposit for clearing out weeds from the backyard, totaling 230 dollars, which the new owner personally cleaned up rather than hiring someone to clear it out.


There are no responibility clauses in the rental agreement in regards to who is responsible for yard maintenance. I had a verbal agreement with old landlord that we could do what we wanted with the yard and were not responisble for upkeep, and old landlord would clean out the yard (no lawn or anything, just a dirt patch) once every couple of years as we requested it, at no charge to us.





I wanted to know if this is a valid deduction on our security deposit or not. I don't think it should be and I hope to win if I were to take this to small claims court?

In california, if not stated in rental agreement, is landlord responsible for yard mainenance?
That's an ambiguous situation, but there are a couple of points in your favor.


1. Custom and usage were that you did not have to maintain the yard. It's not decisive, but it is evidence in your favor.


2. Apparently the landlord, neither old nor new, made any demand on you to clean it up.


3. The new owner, even if in the right, might not be able to justify the $230 expense if they did the work themselves rather than paid a worker to do it.


4. If you had left trash in the yard or other personal property, then I think the decision would swing in the favor of the landlord, but not if it's just naturally occurring weeds and plants.
Reply:Wow 9 years is a long time, is it really worth your time to go to court for $230.00 , I mean first you have to go file, then you have to go back and be heard. The law states in california if a landlord takes more than $126.00 they must give you a receipt with your refund check to show proof of costs, if they do the work themselves they have to show you cost of materials and a reasonable cost for labor, go to the dre.ca.gov website and it will tell you your rights as a tenant. I just think it is better to let sleeping dogs lie, was it fair, NOT AT ALL, but the house is suppose to be returned in the same condition as when you rented it, so if you have pictures from 9 years ago showing the weeds were there when you moved in, then you may have a chance in court, but most likely you will get counter sued by the new owner, and that will not be fun