Question For California Landlords

I'm not too well versed with Landlord/Tenant laws in California so I'm hoping that somebody can help me out...

I just moved out of a house as of April 24th. My landlord called us frantic to get the keys, so my wife drove an hour away two days early (on April 23rd) to give him the keys even though we paid rent through and including the 24th. A nuicance to be sure, but okay. The guy was basically an absentee landlord for the most part...required me to go physically to the bank every month to deposit rent directly into his savings account because he "don't want to be bothered with having to deposit checks."

Anyway, I wait and wait for my rental deposit ($1000), or at least most of it. But here it's been 7 weeks and I haven't heard anything. Last week I sent him an email since he's tough to get ahold of, but no response. So, I finally called him yesterday and had to leave a message. He called my cell (it was off) last night and his message basically said, "...we need to talk about it" and to call him back.

I'm not sure how to approach this because I don't exactly know what he is required by law to do...and I need to know before I threaten him with a small claims suit. My understanding is that he had 21 days to notify me in writing of any claim against the deposit, and if he doesn't make that deadline then he forfeits any right to it.

Now, I knew of one serious problem with water leaking in around a window where we had a massive ant infestation and non-stop mildew. I notified him in writing back in February 2002 and his response was that he'd tried multiple times to fix it and said if we could live with it he didn't want to do anything about it. This is the only thing I can think of that would be serious enough that he'd want to claim our entire $1000...but I don't want to call until I hear from someone here.

Also, another problem I had and I'm just seeking an answer as to whether I was stiffed or whether I was responsible. I was paying all utilities (including water). At one point a couple years ago, the water line for the automatic sprinkler ruptured underground and we had no idea. Our next door neighbour who lived on a lower elevation than us noticed her back lawn was constantly wet, but she thought it was her problem and she said nothing to us. Well, one fine Saturday morning the meter reader knocks on the door and asks if we're using water...nope, not at that moment. He told us we had a serious problem and took me out to see a meter where the dial was whipping around violently.

As it turns out, it must have just started to go right at the time we were billed (every two months)...so for two months we were billed for 1/2 million gallons of water (yes, you read that right). It was a $1700 water bill.

I called the landlord frantic and asked if his insurance would cover it. He called and said nope and that I'd have to pay it since the utilities were in my name. It got the water company to cut it in half, but I was still out $850 (this was 3 years ago before I knew anything at all about real estate investing and landlording).

My question is...should I have been stuck with that water bill? If the landlord should have been responsible, I definitely want to use that as ammunition if I have to fight for my deposit.

Oh, we also left over $450 in custom mini-blinds since the one's that came with the house were so old and brittle and pieces were missing and folks could see right inside our bedrooms.

Thoughts please.

~Keith