The company charges a one-time fee to cover the security deposit with a surety bond that has no expiration date and covers the resident for life--so long as he stays within the same company's apartment communities. SureDeposit has signed on 50 apartment communities in California who are passing along the service to its residents, and services 200,000 renters nationwide.

The company says it will be servicing more than two million renters by 2004. "SureDeposit is a tremendous marketing tool because it reduces the residents' costs of moving by about 40% as compared to a month's security deposit when signing a lease," Company president Ron Davies said in announcing the new offices. "And its proliferation is self-fulfilling. If the community next door is offering SureDeposit, its neighbors are at a disadvantage unless they offer it too."

Patrick Ryan will head the Carmel Valley office for SureDeposit as a national marketing director. A startup financier, Ryan spent seven years with DPIC Companies Inc. in Monterey where he launched the company's first Lawyers division and grew it to $20 million in annual billings. Ryan became president of the law practice solutions division within the firm before taking this new opportunity.