Former tenants of Essex Property Trust apartments in California are in line for a share of a $19.25 million cash fund and about $8.7 million in forgiven move-out charges, but only if San Diego Superior Court Judge Judy S. Bae grants preliminary approval at a hearing set for Nov. 13 at 9:10 a.m. in Department C-62. Essex denies wrongdoing, and no claim form exists yet.
The case, Norman v. Essex Property Trust, was filed in September 2022 and accuses the landlord of keeping parts of security deposits for charges California law does not allow. The settlement was signed Oct. 16, 2026, and plaintiffs filed an unopposed motion for preliminary approval on Oct. 21.
Anyone who rented from Essex in California since fall 2018 should dig out the move-out deposit statement. A deduction above $125 for cleaning and repairs, or any line for late fees or utilities, is what the class definition turns on. Nothing can be filed until a court-approved notice goes out, and roommates should note that payments go per household, not per person.
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A $2,000 carpet charge against a $907 invoice
The complaint’s examples are specific. A San Fernando man was charged nearly $2,000 to replace his carpet, but the contractor’s invoice was $907. A downtown San Diego tenant was billed $550 for painting, and when she called, Essex had no record of the work.
She was also charged for carpet cleaning in a unit with concrete floors. According to the complaint, Essex used internal purchase orders to bill for repairs, deep cleaning and painting, when state law calls for actual third-party invoices. It also alleges inflated contractor amounts and charges for work never performed.
Essex’s attorney said the company “denies any wrongdoing but recognizes the risks, expense, and uncertainty of continued litigation.” The tenants were represented by Jimmie Davis Parker of Robinson & Parker in San Diego, with Jeffrey Hogue and Tyler Belong as co-counsel. Parker said the settlement covers more than 200,000 former Essex tenants.
Who falls inside the class
The class is former residents of California apartment communities owned, operated or managed by Essex or related companies whose leases ended between Sept. 27, 2018, and the date of preliminary approval. The filing details put the group at about 260,685 tenants who moved out in that period.
Tenants qualify one of two ways. Either more than $125 was deducted from the deposit for cleaning, repairs, painting or replacements combined, or any part of the deposit went for something other than unpaid rent or cleaning and repairs, such as utilities or late fees. People who already won a final judgment on these claims are excluded.
The Nov. 13 hearing is only the first gate
Preliminary approval is not final approval. If Judge Bae signs off, class members are notified, by email for the roughly 84% with valid addresses and by mail for the rest. The proposed administrator is CPT Group, and an online claim site is planned, though no web address has been published.
The deadline to file a claim, opt out or object is 45 days after notice goes out, with extra time for re-mailed notices. That deadline cannot exist until the judge acts. Until then, tenants have nothing to file and nothing to miss, and anyone selling help with a claim before then is ahead of the court.
Whether the court grants approval on Nov. 13 can be tracked through the San Diego Superior Court’s case search under case number 37-2022-00038519-CU-NP-CTL. Hearings are sometimes continued, so a Nov. 13 date is a target rather than a promise.
Where the cash goes, and what is automatic
After court-approved fees, costs, service awards and roughly $140,000 in administration, the remaining cash is divided among households that file claims, in proportion to the qualifying charges from each household’s deposit. Amounts are calculated from Essex’s own records, not tenant receipts, and the claim form is signed under penalty of perjury.
Class counsel has asked for up to 35% of the $27.95 million combined value, which would be about $9.78 million, along with up to $560,000 in costs and service awards capped at $15,000 per named plaintiff. If fees came entirely from the cash fund, they would take roughly half of it. The court decides the actual amount.
The $8.7 million in forgiven balances covers unpaid cleaning, repair, painting and replacement charges from roughly Sept. 27, 2018, through Dec. 31, 2023. It needs no claim and applies even to people who opt out. Essex has been barred since May 15, 2026, from collecting, selling or credit-reporting that debt, and must correct credit reports within 30 days after the settlement becomes final.
Payments go out within 10 business days after the settlement takes effect. Uncashed checks and unused reserves are split equally among the University of San Diego School of Law Housing Rights Clinic, Legal Aid of Los Angeles and Bay Area Legal Aid. No per-household estimate has been published.
Essex also agreed to pass vendor discounts and rebates through to tenants, send vendor invoices with move-out accountings, train its California deposit staff each year and file sworn compliance declarations on the first three anniversaries. Plaintiffs estimate the changes will bring $40 million to $83 million in future turnover charges into line with the law over a decade.
Left an Essex apartment in California?
The detail that decides this settlement is a single line on an old move-out statement, and most renters threw that paper away years ago. When notice goes out, 45 days covers claims, opt-outs and objections together, so a household that waits to start looking is already behind.
The Settlement & Refund Recovery System shows the four-date rule for reading a settlement notice, so the claim, opt-out and objection dates are pulled out before they pass. A claim log and payment tracker keeps each pending settlement and its status in one place.
It also explains how to claim when the receipts are gone, which is the situation for most former tenants.
Get the notice-reading rule and a claim log and payment tracker for deposit settlements →
This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
