Odd questions

Well heres the deal, me and my wife rented an apartment with a year lease. at the begining of june we placed our 30 day notice. at the begining of july, the apartment kept calling us telling us they wanted there keys back and what not. Me and my wife still hadnt moved out the rest of our thing. They wanted the keys so they could do maintence work so the next client could move in right away. We decided to not return the keys to them, even though we put in our 30 day notice due to them still chargeing rent for the apartment. They wanted to start cleaning on the 15th of july, so they could be ready for there next client. Which in my eyes means they should have charged us for only half a month. Second problem, Now there saying our damages to the apartment come to 900 dollars, They send us paperwork with no actual invoices but "Quotes" it seems, The actual work done invoices were not included. What are our rights as renters?

Sorry if my statements are king of jumbled or confusing, im slightly mad at the moment.

Thanx in advance,
-Bill

I Forgot to add, The quoted invoice dates, are dates that we still had rights in the apartment. as well as this is in California if that helps.

[OHlandlord]

Once you give notice, you are supposed to be out of the unit at the end of those 30 days (or whatever is required in your state) of notice. Thus if 30 days were required in CA, they had expected you out by the end of June. When you hadn't vacated as agreed, they began calling. Likely, they had already rented your unit per your vacancy notice and needed to ready the unit and place those new tenants in there. When they couldn't, you put them in a tight spot, making them unable to surrender possession they had promised to the next tenants.

Then you failed to turn over the keys as you had agreed in the 30 day notice and retained possession until July 15th. In many states, you would have had to give another notice to vacate since you had not lived up to the terms in the first. (I don't know if this would be required in CA.)

I assume your rent was due on the 1st of the month. Some states are term states where all notices and rents cover from term to term (beginning to end of the month). If CA is a term state, you must pay for the whole month and prorating of rent is not required. Even then, they cannot double dip (collect rent from 2 tenants for the same unit for the same period).

In CA, I do not know if invoices are required with the statement of deposit deductions. It is not in OH. We only have to itemize each deduction to the extent that the tenant can understand what was deducted and for what reason. If you disagree with the statement or do not understand the charges on it, send a challenge letter to the LL asking for further clarification, invoices, or list reasons why you do not owe the amounts listed. Send this letter CRRR, and keep a copy. If CA is a term state, the dates for the changes do not matter since you would owe for the whole month anyways.

CA has specific laws on tenants rights. I suggest you look them up and do some research. There are several tenants rights organizations there too, I think. Try contacting them, a HUD office, or an attorney to find out more. I believe there are some web sites specifically for CA renters too. Try searching for them.