Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in California

That depends upon your agreement with the landlord. You agreed to rent the place which meant he could not rent it to someone else. He would not give you the keys until your rental was to begin. If the rental was subject to Section 8 approval, then yo do not owe anything since there was no such approval so a fundamental term of the contract was not fulfilled. But if you were supposed to move in whether or not Section 8 approved, you owe the money.