Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in California

I am a resident of Los Angeles, CA. It is my understanding from a previous attorney consultation that a potentially fairly stiff penalty can be levied against a residential landlord/ property owner who is found guilty of what my consulting attorney referred to as "failure to enforce"; as in failure to enforce compliance by some tenants of provisions of either the rental agreement or law. I am interested in getting the exact citation in the Civil and/or Criminal Code pertaining to "failure to enforce".

Btw, the specific problem with which my case deals is a group of tenants who actively instigate and incite other tenants to violate compliance with noise ordinance limits, and who coordinate their violation activities in a manner intended to harass the tenant complaining against them; in this case, me.

Finally, I am also interested in learning what the enforcement obligations of the police are with respect to Civil violations, and whether they may also be subject to 'failure to enforce'? Thank you, and I will appreciate your feedback. Hope you can help.

Sincerely,

MARK


Asked on 9/12/09, 2:09 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
George Shers Law Offices of Georges H. Shers

I do not think you have a case. As to the police, it comes within their reasonable judgment as to what should be done if a criminal law is being broken; they do not directly deal with civil matters.

As to state law, as opposed to any rent control rules, there is no duty I know of for a landlord to enforce a criminal law. That is for the police to handle. The landlord could be sued for breaching your contractual terms with him, but that probably would not be worth the money it could cost you. I think you got bad advise; get in touch with the prior attorney and get a citation from him/her.

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Answered on 9/13/09, 2:21 am


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