Tenant moved out and I found they never watered the yard. I'm wondering what you would withhold from their deposit.

When they moved in, it was some grass and some leafy green weeds. The rental agreement specifies they're responsible for the yards. It looks pretty bad for anyone thinking about renting the place.

My options are to put in sod (crazy expensive), hydroseed (also expensive), plant seed and hope new tenant waters it, etc. I was thinking I would offer the new tenant a $40/month rebate if they water the grass and get it to grow back.

I should have mentioned in my post, that my rental agreement states the following:

Here in the Midwest, we can grow a yard fit for a tv commercial with little effort. But, if our rentals were in a place where lawns die if not artificially maintained, I'd sure look into some of the astroturf stuff. A relative in Arizona has that, and says she loves it. I'm not recommending any brand, using that brand name as if it generic.) And a xeriscape landscape is most beautiful, imo.

My understanding is how hot the artificial turf can feel is an issue. I would think a no water 'lawn' would be a nice feature.

In the meantime, that spray In mentioned sounds great.

I expect that your lease clause in invalid because it is not drafted according to CA law. While it is a small matter that ordinarily would not justify an expense, you should consult a competent CA landlord/tenant attorney to learn how such an agreement can be made legal.

Wouldn't dare comment,here the weeds haven't started to grow yet.......... Charlie

If tenant pays the water bill and cuts the grass, then it makes perfect sense why they would not do one so they didn't have to do the other.

I don't believe in watering lawns. I guess if you have a sprinkler system you can set it to water on schedule, but other than that, how does one know when to water a lawn. Do they have to move sprinklers around? I can't imagine a tenant doing that in our area. Mowing maybe, but keeping plants alive takes a lot of work.

Oh yeah, to address your question: I don't think you can withhold $ unless they were REQUIRED to water it in your lease. Also, if it was required, wouldn't you have checked how it looked once in a while?

Sounds like you would be a good candidate for Zeeriscapimg never heard of it before either,but check it out.......charlie

Re your question about how you can "fix" your dead lawn (at least for the time being) I recommend this from Amazon:

EnviroColor 1,000 Sq. Ft. 4EverGreen Grass and Turf Paint

For the last 20 years I have paid for the gardener and the tenant pays for the water. My instructions to the gardener is to keep me informed if the grass is starting to die. If the grass is dying I will have no need for my gardener so behooves him to pay attention to the condition of the grass. Maintaining the landscape is a low priority of most tenants.

JB, my apologies. My phone keeps changing you to 'in'. So, I guess you are trendy now!

In my part of the world, the grass goes crunchy and dormant through the heat of summer, and greens up with the fall/winter/spring rains.

If you have actual landscaping you want to preserve, build that cost into the rent, but hire out the actual maintenance so you know it gets done the way you want it done.

In my whole town, there's maybe two people who water their lawns and have lush green grass in August. Everyone else recognizes that there's a better use of their resources than trying to maintain a green yard in arid geography.

I agree with Jim in OC that it's wise to just hire a gardener who can check on the status of the lawn and report back to you. Also, tenants may not want to shell out the money to water a lawn, so you might need to negotiate some sort of deal that will work for both of you.

What part of CA is your rental? If you have a large yard and might be near Central CA or in a dry and hot area, then indeed like Busy noted, you might opt for drought-tolerant salvias and maybe a ground cover like Kurapia which is some odd version of non-invasive Lipia.

Best of luck.

I did try rock and stone but it tore up the blades on the mower-- and I lost woodruff key after woodruff key due to sudden stoppage.

Sweet woodruff is galium odoratum. Sorry, not that drought tolerant. But, ya don't need a key to grow it. Smells nice though ...