Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in California

hi we have moved in to a rental place almost a year ago and we signed a 2 year lease we have been following the lease exactly never late on rent or any bills, we parked where the landlord told us to park in front of the garage that's attached to the condo, then all of the sudden the association towed our car and said we're not suppose to park there we talked to the landlord he gave us only for the half of the tow fee but it was better then nothing even though I feel like we shouldn't have to pay any part of it since he told us to park there, we started parking on the spaces that are outside which say residential and visitor parking and all of the sudden the association sent us a letter that we can't park there we have to park in the garage which was never told to us by our landlord and we can't park in the garage my husband is self-employed electrician has a lot of tools in the garage which leaves no room to park, so we called the landlord he told us he doesn't know what's going on and he didn't read all the association rules when he bought the condo which is really not our fault or problem we don't own the condo and our lease doesn't say that we have to park in the garage and nowhere else he was suppose to talk to the association but we're guessing he never did because they sent us another letter saying the same thing and if we don't park our garage within 5 days we will be fined for it then my husband has a work truck which we never park here so that we don't take up spaces he had to park here in the condos just for the weekend and we got a sticker on it that we can't park those trucks here and if we don't move it will be towed we called the association and they told us we can't park there at all because that's a visitor parking even though there is a sign saying that it's for residents and visitors parking. I feel like we are being harassed by the association for no reason except for one of the neighbors here is on the board of directors and she has something against us even though we only saw her once or twice and were very nice and neighborly with her. my question is what do we do what rights do we have as tenants?


Asked on 4/01/13, 5:09 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Daphne Macklin Law Office of Daphne L. Macklin

Your problem is very simple: many condo owners, especially those who are the boards of directors, loath (as in deeply hate) renters. If they could find a way to put into the condo rules that there could be no renting of condo units without the same vetting (read getting you into the same fraternity or sorority) as the actual condo owners, many of these people would do that. I recommend that you meet with your unit's actual owner and discuss the problems you are having with the neighbors and the homeowners' association. Your landlord has an obligation to protect you against conduct by the neighbors including the homeowners' association that violates your rights to quiet enjoyment of your unit. I recommend seeing if this matter could be resolved by mediation.

In the mean time, you should consider getting an attorney to help you negotiate an early termination of your rental agreement or a reduction of rent. It seems that your owner may not have gotten all the appropriate permissions from the homeowners' association when he rented the unit, and he clearly has not shared with you all of the information about the "covenants, conditions and restrictions" known as "CC&Rs;" that apply to this property.

Good luck with this.

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Answered on 4/02/13, 8:47 am


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