Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in California

I moved into a mother-in-law addon about 2 weeks ago. It comes with a small microwave oven and a toaster oven. There is a sign on each of these warning that they cannot be used at the same time. The people who own the house said the it would cause the power to go out and I'd have to turn it back on with the circuit breaker. What they failed to tell me was that several other combinations of power use could cause a power outage. I tried to vacuum one day and the power went out. It took me three tries to figure out that I can only vacuum if everything else in the place is turned off: TV, lights, ceiling fan, everything. As a result of all these power outages/surges, my computer is fried, even though I had it plugged into a surge protector. It will no longer boot up. I'm not a computer guru, but I'm fairly technically savvy. I've tried everything to troubleshoot the problem. I went out and spent $60 on a UPS, but it was too late and the damage had already been done. I'm beginning to fear that I'm going to either have to replace the motherboard (which I don't know how to do) or purchase a new computer. I work from home and my computer is my livelihood. My question is (you guessed it) are the owners of the house liable? Should they have to replace my computer or pay for repair costs/new hardware?

Thanks.


Asked on 6/08/10, 1:54 am

1 Answer from Attorneys

The landlord may or may not be liable. Landlords are liable for conditions on their premises that are hazardous to persons or property that they fail to remediate after having notice of the condition and opportunity to remediate. It is not clear from your question whether the landlord had reason to know that the insufficient amperage of the circuit in the unit would damage a computer.

On the other hand, however, it is pretty clear that you have an illegal unit. It is extremely unlikely that it was built with permits, and it probably has other code violations beyond the wiring. So if you want to push the issue and possibly have to find another place to live if the local government condemns the unit, you can threaten the landlord that you will take the matter to the health and code enforcement offices of your local government if he doesn't replace your computer and upgrade the wiring.

Read more
Answered on 6/08/10, 9:11 am


Related Questions & Answers

More Landlord & Tenants questions and answers in California