Starting January 1, 2026, California’s AB 414 updates the rules for how multifamily operators deliver move-out statements and return security deposit refunds. The statute is long and technical, but the takeaway is straightforward: your process needs to capture tenant preferences, store them, and follow them every time. That’s where complexity shows up for operations teams, especially at scale.
This article breaks down the changes in plain language and explains how Roost helps California operators stay compliant without adding more work to onsite or centralized teams.
California is shifting responsibility to operators to document how tenants want to receive information and refunds.
That includes:
The law doesn’t just require you to follow these choices — it requires you to prove you followed them.
For large portfolios, that means preference collection, routing, storage, deadlines, and documentation all matter.
Unless you have a written agreement with the tenant, the move-out statement must be sent by first-class mail. With an agreement, you can send it by email.
Operators now need a reliable way to collect the tenant’s preferred delivery method and document it.
Refund rules depend on whether the tenant paid the deposit or rent electronically.
This connects deposit collection, rent payment history, and refund workflows in a new way.
Roost includes a simple user interface for residents to select from nine different refund options including Mailed Check, ACH, Venmo, PayPay, Google and Apple Wallet, Instant Debit, Check and Virtual Visa card.
When more than one adult lives in a unit, it’s important to have a clear, written agreement from all adults on the lease.
This agreement should outline:
If there’s no agreement in place, the refund check must be made payable to all adult tenants and mailed or delivered to any one of them.
This often delays processing, increases the chance of disagreements, and raises the risk of the refund going uncashed and becoming unclaimed property.
Checks made out to multiple people can be especially hard to deposit—everyone may need to sign, and coordinating that can be difficult if someone has already moved out of state.
Roost makes this easier with built-in roommate tools that let residents set their percentage split, agree on a forwarding address, and e-sign their approval—creating clear, time-stamped documentation for everyone involved.
If rent or the deposit was paid electronically, and you don’t already have a preference agreement, you must send written notice giving the tenant the option to receive the refund electronically.
Timing matters. This notice must go out within a reasonable period after either party gives notice of intent to vacate, or before the end of the lease.
If a tenant ends their tenancy early under Civil Code §1946.7 and certain conditions are met, you may issue the refund directly to that tenant even without a multi-tenant agreement. The law doesn’t specify timing, leaving operators to interpret best practices.
The biggest challenges are administrative: collecting multiple tenant preferences, generating and storing documentation, coordinating multi-tenant approvals, staying ahead of statutory timing, and keeping a clean record of every action.
Manual processes will become error-prone quickly. Most of the risks come down to tracking, timing, and proof.
Roost was built to automate move-out and refund compliance, and already supports the workflows California is now requiring.
Roost reminds residents at time of notice to select their preferences.
It then digitizes:
Everything is captured and stored automatically.
Roost sends detailed, itemized move-out statements and supporting documentation such as receipts and photos from the client property management system, using the tenant’s selected method with proof of delivery.
Preferences, routing, and documentation stay in one place. Residents can also access and view photos online.
Roost supports multiple electronic refund payment types, mailing checks first class, co-tenant splits, and full tracking of refund timing.
Exceptions like early termination scenarios are handled in the same workflow, without spreadsheets or offline coordination.
Teams get alerted when information, photos or receipts are missing, and when a compliance deadline is approaching. Staff stay ahead of requirements without manual tracking.
Every action — consent, delivery, approvals, routing — is timestamped and stored. Roost generates receipts, attachments, and a complete audit trail for every move-out.
The new rules introduce more administrative complexity, but the right tools make compliance simple. If your teams can’t reliably document tenant choices, track timing, and route multi-tenant approvals, compliance risk increases quickly.
Roost reduces that risk and removes the workload.
If you’d like to see how Roost can help your California properties prepare for the January 2026 changes, we’d be happy to walk you through it. Let’s get ahead of this together. Sales@joinroost.com
