Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in California

In my residential lease, I found a funny sentence under the category for Rent, saying "landlord may apply any payment made by tenant to any obligation owed by tenant to landlord regardless of any dates or directions that accompany a payment"... and in the three months that I've lived here, my landlord has been trying to harass me into breaking my 6 month lease and move out early. She recently lost in a UD case against me for claiming I owe her almost $2,000 that were totally unfounded and now I've been given another 3 day notice to pay or quit.

Is it legal for my landlord to decide my rent payment may be used for things other than rent, then claim I am delinquent on rent?


Asked on 6/24/17, 9:22 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Robert F. Cohen Law Office of Robert F. Cohen

I believe that the clause means that if you missed a rent payment, your latest payment may be applied to the defaulted payment, even if you were to write on the rent check that it was for June 2017, for example. You might seek out a good tenants' rights attorney in your locale to explore your options to stop the harassment. In addition, if your rental agreement provided for attorney's fees to the prevailing party in a lawsuit, that might be additional incentive for her to back off if she's reminded of that provision. Good luck!

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Answered on 6/24/17, 9:56 am


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