Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in California

Landlord-Renter responsibility

I rented an apartment with a storage unit in the basement. The landlord gave me the keys of the apt but not the keys for the storage unit deadbolt. He instead gave me the keys for an external lock that goes in the door latch stating that he could not find the other keys and the building was very safe. A year later, somebody was able to enter the basement and force all the storage doors. The only one that the criminal was successful with was mine. In all the other cases, the thief was able to bypass the external lock but not the deadbolt single cylinder. The thief subtracted over $5k worth of sporting gear from my storage unit. I don't have a renter insurance. The HOA insurance says that they are not responsible for my private property even though it was in a common area. The landlord says that he's not responsible for anything. Is there anything I can do to appeal to his lack of responsibility in giving me the door keys for the deadbolt lock instead of the external lock keys?

Thanks


Asked on 12/14/07, 7:16 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Robert L. Bennett Law offices of Robert L. Bennett

Re: Landlord-Renter responsibility

You are welcome. It is nice to have someone say "thank you" at this site, since we donate our time, and the question askers are seldom courteous.

I think your facts could easily be argued for either side in a court of law. This is like a bar exam question.

First, examine the provisions in your lease, and see if there is anything that covers this. If you need help, you can fax, or scan, or PDF the lease to me, and I'll try to help.

Second, we need negligence, and third, we need causation. Did the landlord act improperly? Did he have a duty to give you keys for the deadbolt? Frankly, I don't know. and I don't think anyone knows. His duty is to avoid being careless. This could be argued either way.

Was the landlord's failure to supply a lock to the deadbolt a cause of your loss. I, again, could argue either way.

Fourth, are you partially to blame, because you didn't insure such large amount of valuable equipment in a common area? Maybe, maybe not?

Fifth, is the HOA insurance company correct? Probably not, but insurance companies will weasel out of any claim that they can. I recently saw statistics about Hurricane Katrina that only 5% of the homeowner claims have been paid after 2 1/2 years.

Bottom line: Retain an attorney merely to write nasty demand letters to the landlord and to the HOA and get ready to sue in Small Claims if you don't get proper offers.

If you need more, please feel free to e-mail, or call my office.

Good luck!

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Answered on 12/14/07, 10:50 pm


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