Furnished LA rental after AB 12: the inventory is your real deposit

Until mid 2024, California let landlords ask for a bigger deposit on a furnished unit: up to three months' rent, against two for an unfurnished one. The logic was simple. More things in the unit, more to break, more security. That cushion is gone. Since July 1, 2024, the cap is one month's rent whether the unit comes with a sofa or not.

For owners renting furnished in Los Angeles, to relocating professionals, students or long stays, that changes where the protection has to come from. General information, not legal advice.

What AB 12 changed

AB 12 replaced the old caps with a single limit of one month's rent, in the words of the bill's digest "regardless of whether the residential property is unfurnished or furnished". The current text of Civil Code 1950.5 keeps one exception: a landlord who is a natural person, or an LLC whose members are all natural persons, and who owns no more than two rental properties with no more than four units in total, may take up to two months (unless the tenant is a service member). Furniture is no longer part of the calculation, for anyone.

The furniture is still recoverable

The deposit still covers damage beyond ordinary wear and tear, and the statute also covers restoring or returning "personal property or appurtenances" when the lease allows it. A torn cushion or a missing lamp can still be deducted. What changed is the margin: with one month held, a disputed furniture line can eat most of it, so each line has to hold up.

Without an inventory, the furniture line is a guess

The landlord carries the burden of proving that deductions are reasonable, and cannot charge for damage that predates the tenancy. A furnished unit multiplies that problem: a used dining table, a rug, a mattress, each with its own history. "The sofa was fine" is not evidence. A photo of the sofa, dated the day before the tenant moved in, is. What the move-in inventory should show:

• Every piece of furniture, in full and in close-up on the parts that wear: cushions, armrests, table tops, chair legs.
• Mattresses with the protector off.
• Small items listed by name and count: lamps, mirrors, kitchenware, remotes.
• Existing marks photographed close, so they are never charged by mistake.
• Rugs and curtains, whose wear is easy to confuse with damage.

Same list at move-out

The inventory pays off only if move-out follows the same order, item by item, so each photo has its pair. A missing item becomes a count, not an argument. Sign the list with the tenant at move-in and attach it to the lease.

The takeaway. AB 12 took away the bigger furnished deposit, so the inventory is now the real security on a furnished LA rental. Photograph every piece, close up, before move-in, and repeat the same list at the end. Under it, keep a neutral record of the unit itself: a Scoutmyplace move-in condition report documents every room element by element, dated, in a file you can share with the tenant on day one.