Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in California

I can look into going to superior court for the security deposit and your rent going back a year or two if you want to retain my services. You didnt mention if you filed already, or didnt.

Best,

Daniel Bakondi, Esq.

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415-450-0424

The Law Office of Daniel Bakondi

870 Market Street, Suite 1161

San Francisco CA 94102

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The illegality of the unit does not entitle you to any refund of rent. That is between the city and the owner. In fact even if you have a legitimate habitability issue (which limited heat does not qualify for, since it was obviously warm enough for you to occupy for over two years) you are only entitled to rent abatement once you take action, either by withholding rent or declaring a constructive eviction. The law does not allow you to live in a habitable unit for over two years and then pull a "gotcha" and get all your rent back because of zoning and permitting violations that do not affect the habitability of the premises. In addition, in 99.9 out of 100 of these cases, upon payment of permitting fees and having an inspection, non-permitted construction is retroactively approved, and zoning variances are granted.

As for your other questions, no you cannot break up a cause of action to squeeze it into small claims court. That is called splitting a cause of action and is illegal. How long to file a claim? You would have to have a claim, since the nature of the claim determines the statute of limitations. Lastly, if you are already filing a claim for late return and excessive charges on your deposit, and fail to include any and all other claims you want to try to assert, you will have waived them. The law does not allow you to bring a series of lawsuits on different claims arising from the same transaction, relationship, lease, etc. You get one shot.