(CA) Landlord deducted most of deposit for cleaning a clean apartment. Normal wear/tear allowed? legaladvice

My boyfriend and I recently moved out from a one bedroom apartment. We heard from the landlord to expect that several hundred dollars will be deducted for cleaning. However we kept the apartment very clean while living there and even spent two full days cleaning up when moving out, scrubbing every drawer and cabinet and removing dust from the crown molding. My boyfriend thought we were going overboard, but apparently it wasn't enough.

The lease does state the place must be left as clean as move in, but in the photos I took before moving out you can't even see any evidence of anything being unclean. Carpets may be worn in some areas, but we never wore shoes on them or spilled anything, and we thoroughly vacuumed. Normal wear and tear is allowed in the lease. The lease doesn't require professional cleaning or carpet steaming. I don't doubt that the landlord will send proof or receipts that cleaning services were performed but it seems unnecessary.

My question is this... what's the best practical way to fight this? When we receive what's left of the deposit, are we out of luck? We moved hours away and it seems like it wouldn't be worth suing them (maybe they knew this from our forwarding address) because the expense of traveling and missing work would be so much.

Also what is the difference between allowing wear and tear but requiring perfect cleanliness? It seems contradictory. They said for example that our refrigerator was new when we moved in and even though it looks perfectly clean, some areas are yellowed or something so they must be disassembling it and using some special chemicals to restore it to look like new... shouldn't that be normal wear and tear, even if technically it could be "cleaned" at some absurd expense? Also several employees mentioned to me, before moving out or them seeing our place, to expect deductions for cleaning because it is standard procedure even if everything is already clean (unfortunately we don't have this in writing).

One last addon question. We will get a bill for utilities (from landlord, not utilities company) soon. Can we refuse to pay and consider it taken out of our deposit somehow? It would be aggravating to give them more money when they essentially owe us (but don't want our credit scores hurt or something).

Submitted August 20, 2017 at 09:25PM by acornsix http://ift.tt/2x3eR2n legaladvice