California's deposit statute was amended three times in three years. AB 12 capped deposits at one month's rent for security collected from July 1, 2024. AB 2801 required photographs — at move-out from April 1, 2025, and at move-in for tenancies beginning July 1, 2025. And AB 414, effective January 1, 2026, changed how the money comes back. The 21-day clock did not move. What moved is what happens at the end of it.
The refund now follows the money
The 2026 rule has a trigger and a consequence. The trigger: the landlord received the deposit or rent payments electronically — either is enough. The consequence is in the statute's own words:
If the landlord received the security or rental payments from the tenant electronically, the landlord shall return the remainder of the security electronically to a bank account or other financial institution designated by the tenant in writing, or by any electronic or virtual method available to the landlord if agreed to in writing by the tenant.
'Shall return' — not 'may offer.' Two electronic routes are named: a bank account the tenant designates in writing, or another electronic method the tenant agrees to in writing. The parties can also agree in writing on a different method entirely — a mailed check, personal delivery — but absent that agreement, a tenant who paid electronically is owed an electronic refund. For everyone else, the older default still stands: personal delivery or a check by first-class mail.
A notice you're owed
The same subdivision adds a duty that mirrors the pre-move-out inspection notice: as the tenancy ends, the landlord must tell the tenant in writing about the right to an electronic refund —
… within a reasonable time after notification of either party’s intention to terminate the tenancy, or before the end of the lease term, notify the tenant in writing of the tenant’s right to receive the security electronically to a bank account or other financial institution designated by the tenant …
That notice isn't required where the parties had already agreed in writing on another method, or where the tenancy ended under certain eviction provisions. Otherwise it's part of what the statute expects at move-out — and a tenant who never designated an account has, in practice, not yet been asked for one.
If you share the lease
For multiple adult tenants, the default is blunt: one check payable to all adult tenants on the lease, with the itemized statement sent to any one of them the landlord chooses. The way around it is a written agreement — the landlord and every adult tenant, at the start of the tenancy or any time after — specifying who gets what share, by what method, and where each person's statement goes. A one-check refund to four former roommates who no longer speak is exactly the situation that agreement exists to prevent. A tenant who ended the lease under Civil Code section 1946.7 can also ask for the refund to be disbursed some other way.
The statement and the photographs can arrive by email — by agreement
The itemized statement still defaults to personal delivery or first-class mail; email is permitted only when landlord and tenant have agreed to it. The photographs behind any repair or cleaning deduction are more flexible — the statute allows them by mail, email, flash drive, or a link. (The photograph rules in full: California's deposit-photo law explained.)
The numbering moved
A quiet change with practical consequences: AB 414 renumbered the section. The 21-day return-and-statement duty, long cited as section 1950.5(g), is now (h)(1); the documentation duty is (h)(2); the $125 receipt threshold is (h)(4)(A). Anything you find online — a template, a forum answer, a landlord's letter — that cites '(g)' for the 21-day rule was written before 2026.
What didn't change
The deadline is still 21 calendar days after the tenant vacates. The itemized statement is still required to keep anything, with receipts where repair and cleaning deductions exceed $125 and photographs where they apply. The landlord still carries the burden of proving every deduction was reasonable, and a court may still award statutory damages of up to twice the deposit where it finds bad faith. Small claims is still the venue, up to $12,500. (What those rules require, situation by situation: Your landlord won't return your deposit — what happens next.)
The two laws before it
The cap: since July 1, 2024, a deposit may not exceed one month's rent — two months for a small landlord (a natural person, or an LLC of natural persons, owning no more than two rental properties with four units in total), except where the tenant is a service member. The photographs: move-out photos before and after any repair or cleaning that's deducted for, from April 1, 2025; move-in photos for tenancies beginning July 1, 2025; and the photographs delivered with the itemized statement whenever a repair or cleaning deduction is taken.
Whatever year your lease began, the question at day 22 is the same: what did the law require of your landlord, and did they do it. The free check applies the current statute to your dates and your answers, in about two minutes.
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Day Twenty Two provides self-help legal information for California renters, not legal advice. Statutory citations are to California Civil Code section 1950.5 as currently amended. For advice about your specific situation, consult a licensed California attorney.