Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in California

Breach of Contract

I lived in an apartment 9 months ago and lets just say it was anything but a

pleasant experience...but anyways. They tried to say we owed them 1706.88

after taking our whole deposit. Our roof leaked for 3 months of our 6 month

stay and they refused to fix it..we asked and asked, but they never came. Well

when our first 5 months was up we gave thirty days notice. They claimed we

owed them 60 days notice according to the lease we were never given a copy of.

When I told them all the rest of our paper work (with her signature on it) said 30

days she simply said ''oh, thats old''. So they claimed we breached our contract

and owed them 1,300 dollars, kept our deposit and then added more charges.

Plus when we asked for repayment on the damages the roof they never fixed

caused they said ''and thats our fault? You knew it was leaking you should have

renters insurance for that!'' Are we being wronged?


Asked on 10/19/05, 10:49 pm

2 Answers from Attorneys
Randy Schlosser Law Office of RM Schlosser

Re: Breach of Contract

Yes, the landlord acted improperly. The failure to maintain a leaky roof raises an issue of whether the property was uninhabitable. If so, you would be entitled to a proration of the rent. A claim for constructive eviction would be hard to sustain under these facts. As to the additional months lease payment, if your information says 30 days notice and you were not given a copy of a lease that states otherwise, you should prevail against the landlord for the amount of rent they kept. As this action is minor in nature, I would suggest you pursue the matter in small claims court with a limit of $5000.00. Ask for a rent proration for the 6 months you paid, relief for the extra months rent they billed you for, and further damages as the court sees fit.

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Answered on 10/21/05, 1:07 am
H.M. Torrey The Law Offices of H.M. Torrey

Re: Breach of Contract

yes, you are being wronged COMPLETELY. you have a number of causes of action against them based on your facts, including but not limited to constructive eviction and/or failure to maintain habitable premises for you and your family. however, you definitely want to act quickly here under the circumstances. if you would like further assistance, contact us today and we will go over your full factual circumstances and give you your best legal options under those circumstances to "fight back" effectively.

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Answered on 10/20/05, 2:45 am


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