Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in California

Is landlord liable for theft in my apartment?

My apartment was recently burglarized and all that was stolen was my

laptop, valued at $1200. The police determined it had been someone

with a key to my apartment. The management discovered that the spare

set of keys that they keep in order to enter my apartment during

maintenance emergencies had been replaced with a false set of keys,

though the originals were used two weeks ago. Hence, someone broke

into the box where they keep tenant keys within the last 2 weeks and

stole the keys to enter my apartment. Is my landlord liable for the

burglary and should they be responsible for reimbursing me or replacing

my stolen computer?


Asked on 2/11/04, 3:35 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Martin Snitow

Re: Is landlord liable for theft in my apartment?

The legal issue is whether the landlord was negligent in safeguarding the passkeys. The answer depends on the facts, but probably there was negligence. If so, the landlord would be liable and the landlord's insurance would cover the loss.

Write a letter to the landlord. Don't phone or IM. Say what happened, how it happened and why you think the landlord's negligence caused your loss. If you still have the receipt for the laptop, give a copy of that with your letter. Set a deadline for the landlord to respond (two weeks is about right) and ask the landlord to submit your claim to its insurance company.

If that doesn't work, try small claims court. Good luck.

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Answered on 2/11/04, 3:57 pm


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