Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in California
I live in Oakland California and the owner of the apartment building I live in has sold our parking lot. Parking is included in our month to month lease and we received no written notice but received a phone call notifying us that we no longer have parking and that the apartment building itself is now up for sale. What legal recourse do we have? What resources are available at low to no cost? Thanks.
1 Answer from Attorneys
On a month-to-month tenancy, they must give you 30-days notice of any change in the terms of your rental agreement. That's it. If they change the terms with less than 30-days notice, you are only entitled to the reduction in the value of your tenancy between the tenancy as rented to you and under the changed terms. So if the same unit would rent for, say, $100 less per month without parking as it would with parking, you are entitled to $100 discount on your rent for 30 days. Since they have the right to raise the rent after 30-days or change the terms, the discount only applies to the period less than 30 days that they gave you notice of the change. Since you are in Oakland, and there is a rent control ordinance in place there (weak as it may be) you may have slightly different rights under local law. The City of Oakland has a rent control office or department. You should contact them and ask them if this constitutes an illegal de facto rent increase under local law. That is the only thing I can think of that would get you any real relief in this situation.