Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in California
Re: Broken Heater / Tenant's Right
Last Fri I sent a certified letter (return receipt requested) to my management co regarding a broken heater that was leaking carbon monoxide (thankfully this flaw was discovered by a gas company serviceman).
Management reinstalled the fixed heater on Sat afternoon and today (Wed) I spoke with someone from the management co regarding my letter.
I am asking for a reimbursement bc they should have checked the heater before I moved in. He claimed repeatedly that they are not responsible for checking that the heaters are in working order, that it is instead the responsibility of the utility company after the tenant calls them to have service turned on.
He also said that they do not check heaters before finding tenants as the company manages 3,000 units. I said they seem to be good at checking walls, carpets, and other superficial things that make an apt look nice.
I'm pretty sure he was giving me bull but just in case: was he telling the truth regarding management companies and not needing to check the working conditions of heaters? Or that it's not their responsibility? Are there some legal codes I can throw back at him so he'll know he can't feed me any sort of lie?
Thank you.
3 Answers from Attorneys
Re: Re: Broken Heater / Tenant's Right
You have two excellent answers from Mr. Shers and Mr. Roth.
It is most important to remember that the landlord is required to provide heat, and not with leaking carbon monoxide.
Re: Re: Broken Heater / Tenant's Right
The only code section that probably applies is that a landlord is required to provide a place that is habititable ad does not violate the various health regulations. Supplying a unit without heat is a violation, supplying a unit leaking CO is clearly much worse. In general, one can not transfer responsibility for a dangerous activity to another; that probably would apply here. Also, what if the heater is operating correctly when the PG&E inspection is made, the tenant has lived there many years, the heater then goes bad. There is a duty to be sure that the premises can be safely inhabited. That his company has a large client load is nice, but does not mean that they can avoid duties they would have if they serviced only 1500 units. What he is saying is that the company should hire more people.
Demand to speak to the head of the management company. Be firm but polite. Point out that if the buildings owner told them not to check the heaters, then it is the owner's fault but since you are required to deal with the management company and they represent the owner they have to resolve the negligence and violation of the law. And that you expect within 5 working days a check for the amount of rent you paid when you could not live in the unit, the cost of moving [if if just mileage], what it would cost to live elsewhere [you did not have to stauy with a friend], etc.
Re: Re: Broken Heater / Tenant's Right
No. Not really. The landlord must provide working heat. The failure to do so is a tenantability problem under the Civil Code. It is also a habitability problem under the Green case decided years ago by the CA Supreme Court. But, the remedy requires that the tenant give the landlord notice of the problem and a reasonable time to repair. Reasonable depends on the circumstances. My advice? It is not worth the fight. Unless you move out of the apartment to avoid exposure to carbon monoxide, you will likely not get even a small claims judge to agree with your position.
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