Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in California

We have been in an apartment for over 25 years. The floors need to be redone and we need a new paint job. We paid OUT OF OUR own pocket because we knew the landlord would not pay for it.

They found out we were redoing the floors, which was basically restoring the look of the current floors; no new stain or anything else. The landlords made us stop work on it as it was 'not authorized' even though we had notified them almost 2 months ago that we were going to do it. As a result, the work is only half done. The living room looks amazing but the bedroom now looks even worse since you can easily compare it to the part of the apartment that was completed. Also, the bedroom was painted blue and now they wanted painted back to white, at our own expense.

We are doing this to improve the condition of our place. Shouldnt we have the right to do this, especially if we are paying for it? We are even willing to sign an agreement that we will paint the room back to white when we leave, but they will not accept this.

Is there anything we can do to get the floors completed and also to leave the bedroom paint as is? Thanks.


Asked on 12/15/09, 9:49 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Melvin C. Belli The Belli Law Firm

.You needed to get their permission to do these repairs as it is their property not your even though you have lived there for 25 years. However if they agreed to the work then you should be should be able to finish it. Hopefully you got something in writing with their permission, if not then they are right and you cannot do the work. As for re-painting the bedroom you should probably be able to defer that until you move out as long as you agree to pay for it.

Hope this helps and good luck.

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Answered on 12/21/09, 8:50 pm


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