Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in California

I live in an apartment right next door to a school with my 2 boys 9,11 and my fiancee. We fell a little behind on rent and had set up an arrangement with our lanlord on 3/8. 2 days later I was online and got an email about a sex offender alert in my area so I went on it and found out we had one in our building. We have lived here for over a year so we have talked to everyone here.The sex offender talks to my oldest son everytime he sees him outside and his window overlooks the whole elementary school which I thought was unacceptable for him to be that close to the school. We decide to call our landlord and tell him and when we did thats when everything changed. While on the phone with him he was calm and said he would look into it. Then the next day while I was at work my landlord came to my apartment and yelled at my fiancee saying It's all our fault Hes been getting nothing but grief since we found out and we shout have kept our mouths shut. We had told the neighbor next door since he had 2 young kids and the neighbor asked the sex offender and all he said was it happened awhile ago. thats it. after our landlord left. the very next day he gave us a 3 day notice. I think he did it for retialiation but I dont know. I gave him a written 30 day notice and I moving out this weekend I dont feel safe here anymore. The landlord served us yesterday with an Unlawful detainer papers.Do I have a case?


Asked on 3/22/12, 10:48 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Brian Rosales Harris, Rosales & harris

By case I assume you mean a defense to the unlawful detainer based upon the landlord's three day notice. The three day notice would need to be for a breach of the rental agreement. The notice must state what the breach is and the landlord must prove the breach stated in the notice. You can defend the action by disputing a. whether or not the reason in the notice is a breach of the rental agreement and b. whether or not you actually commited the breach.

You can also raise the affirmative defense of retaliation. Telling your neighbor of the existence of a registered sex offender is not a breach of the rental agreement and in fact it is probably the type of speech protected by the 1st amendment. If you simply informed the neighbor that would be a peaceful exercise of you right to free speech. To serve you a notice for that exercise would be retaliatory. Even though you are moving out it would be wise to respond to the unlawful detainer so that the landlord does not obtain a default judgment. You should contact an attorney to discuss you case in detail.

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Answered on 3/23/12, 9:34 am


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