Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in California
I am having Code Enforcement come out to the complex, Because my 450 sq.ft, studio apartment , has accumilated in a 7month period . $1200 worth of elcetric(utility bills), and im almost never at home. My electricity is off right now, for the last 5 weeks, as is my neighbor in the other building on the property.. I explained this to a supervisor at the utility company,she just wanted me to pay. there has been 2 bills at $600, i had the community program , pay the first, but when i recieved a second at alomost exactly the same amount , that's when i was absolutely sure. When i informed the landlord of the problem i had been having, she said in an almost a whipering voice"don't say anything about the other building on the property", because they had it connected to either one of there other properties, or some iilegal wiring, she was partially vague. Code Enfocement told me that if and when they find out the discrepency, we would have to vacate the premisis. Question is: will the owners, have to pay for lodging for ALL 6 tenants in the 'six-plex', ??
1 Answer from Attorneys
This sounds as if the electric company would have a criminal action against the landlord or whoever else had fiddled with the electricity connections. This is a serious matter. It seems odd that the buildings would need to vacated, but then I do not fully understand the physical layout. Perhaps some of the units are not legal at all? Whether the landlord would have to pay for your new housing would probably be based upon a civil suit against the landlord for failure to provide you with the housing you bargained for. I would suspect that if there was landlord foulplay that you could recover costs and even punitive damages. You should go to your local legal aid office to see what they could do for you.
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