One of San Diego County’s largest apartment landlords, Essex Property Trust, has agreed to pay $19.25 million to settle a class-action lawsuit accusing the company of wrongfully withholding tenant security deposits. The deal covers former renters who say the company charged them for repairs that were inflated, never performed, or billed using internal paperwork instead of real contractor invoices.
Essex owns 47,874 apartment units across California, including 5,311 units in San Diego County, according to internal company documents cited by Times of San Diego. Former tenants filed the class-action lawsuit in San Diego County, alleging the company violated state law by refusing to properly return security deposits. The outlet reported the settlement and found that the case centered on how Essex documented — or failed to document — the deductions it took out of tenants’ deposits before sending back whatever was left.
According to the complaint, Essex used internal purchase orders to charge tenants for repairs, deep cleaning, painting and other services rather than relying on outside vendors. California law requires landlords to provide tenants with actual invoices from third parties to justify those deductions, and the complaint also accused Essex of inflating the costs listed on the third-party invoices it did produce.
Carpet Bills and Painting That Never Happened
The gap between what Essex billed and what work actually cost shows up starkly in one case cited in the lawsuit: the company charged a San Fernando tenant nearly $2,000 to replace carpet, even though a contractor invoice for the same job listed just $907. The complaint also alleges Essex charged tenants for work that was never performed at all…