Real Property Management Antelope Valley Failed to return security deposit within 21 days, lying about charges, refuse to acknowledge evidence Palmdale California

I gave proper notice for moving out of my rental company. I handed in the keys and all related items on April 9th.  I then called the office and asked for how much rent I owed since I was moving out mid month. The contract ended on the 22st, I gave notice that I was moving out on the 10th, and handed in my items on the 9th. When I asked what I owed, I was told $450. I made the payment, and went about my business, waiting for my $1700 security deposit refund. 

A week went by and I called to inquire on my security deposit. I was told that they would be cutting the check that thursday, and I would recieve it by the following monday or tuesday, but they could nto tell me how much it was for. I waited. 

Next Tuesday I call back, having not recieved my check yet. I was told again it would be cut that thursday,and that I shoudl recieve it by the following tuesday. I wated.

Next Wednesday I called having not recieved my check yet. I was told that everyone else was wrong, and they don't know why I was told (twice) that my check was cit and on it's way. They informed me that they had 21 days (It was now past 21 days) to return my security deposit to me, and that I would be recieving $436 of my deposit back. I informed them that they had passed the 21 day mark, and by law they are no longer entitled to keep any of my funds. They said I was wrong that they have 21 days to cut the check. Apparently after they cut the check they can wait as long as they want to send it out (or in this case not send it out at all) and still be fine under the law.

Through email I was able to get a copy of what charges they had put against my deposit. There was $405 for the remainder of the rent. I asked what that was about because I was told $450, and then paid it. They said my lease was until the 21st, not the 10th, so even though they gave me the wrong amount to pay, I still owe it. That is fine and I accepted that, at the end of the day the signed contract is what matters. They also charged $38 for some broken blinds that were broke when I moved in. I did not have any evidince of that because they just left me keys in a lock box and no move in sheet to document damages. That was my fault for not insuring I had evidence, so I accepted that as well. 

However they also charged me $245 for carpet cleaning which I had cleaned by a neighbor who does carpets before I moved out, and also $575 for landscapeing and trash removal. This last one really gets me because the grass was dead when I moved in. I have pictures and videos that prove it. I also have written statements from neighbors about the state of the lawn when we moved in. They had the water turned off when we moved in so no grass could be watered and it all died. I tried to re-seed it, but it didn't take. I have been told that here in Southern california (the Mojave Desert specifically) that you can not seed grass here succesfully, you need to lay down sod. I was not going to pay for sod in a house I didn't own when the grass was dead when we moved in. 

As far as the trash goes, we live in a very high wind area, as anyone living here can atest to. I moved out on the 9th, having cleaned up all the trash in the yard, and they inspected it 13 days later, almost 2 weeks worth of wind blowing in trash. This is also written out by neighbors in the neighbor hood. I have submitted my pictures and videos to the rental agency, but they refuse to acknowledge them, telling me that I just had to water it and it would have been fine. The grass was dead. Brown, crumbly, diseintigrating, dead. No amount of watering will save dead grass, as my water bill can verify. 

The last straw is that I came by the property and took pictures after this to see this $575 worth of landscaping and trash removal. The yard had not been touched. All the trash from the wind was in the yard. The yard had not been mowed since I moved out. There was no landscaping, no seeding, no mowing, no cleaning, no nothiner. They charged me $575 for work they didn't do. 

In emails with them I tried to settled, I offered to take about $1236 of my $1700 deposit, a deposit that they now no longer have any right to keep any of, but they still refuse, so now I will be taking them to small claims court and see if I can get my money back that way.

To top it all off, the person I was dealing with, Mandi, is rude, and only responds to her emails about half the time. I have lots of emails through out the year asking questiongs, only to wait weeks for a response, if one was ever recieved at all.