Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in California

I just signed 1 year lease contract with the new apartment 3 months ago. But I met many troubles after I moved in continually.

First month

- The loose plugs that I can�t use the house applications. (The office spend one month to fix the problem.

- The broken mirror problem of closet�the office promise will fix it within 1 month, but actually it had been fixed after 2 months.

The 2nd month

- the leaking ceiling problem happened. The office stop the leaking water at the same day, but not the leaking bulge which had been fixed and re-painted after one month.

The 3rd month

-My closet was collapsed because of the shoddy construction work. (I have picture to proof).

- The apartment constructs the new gate just next to my bedroom window started at 8:30AM from Monday to Friday over 4 weeks. The workers knock the lime stone next to my window just 2 feet away. The construction brought the noise, lime ashes and dust which full of my bedroom

Can I end the leasing without termination fee? Or what else I can do? I don�t want to stay here for more risks and troubles. But the apartment office always ignore my claim.

Appreciate for working my case.

Best Regards,

Hillary


Asked on 10/11/10, 5:15 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Michael Isaac Shokrian Law Offices of Michael Isaac Shokrian, APLC

If you have not already sent them written notices of all of the above problems, please do so now. Be specific about each item/problem, the negative effects on your unit and habitability, and the time it took to clean it all up. Then demand a fair reduction of rent for the period of time where the unit was not habitable. If they ignore you, you have three options:

1. You give them a second notice where you let them know that you will be withholding a specific amount of next month's rent to make up for the damages. The risk here is that if you withhold rent, you open yourself up to an Unlawful Detainer Action (Eviction lawsuit) and you will have to explain your situation to a judge and hope that he/she agrees w/you.

2. You continue paying full rent, but you file a small claims action against the landlord for the value of damages. This way, you are not risking your tenancy by withholding. But this will require you to file the papers w/the small claims court. In either case (#1 or #2) you'll have to be able to DOCUMENT (written notices, pictures, repair invoices etc...) the damage to show to a judge.

3. Give 30 Day Notice of Termination based on their "Breach of warranty of habitability" for those problems, pay your full rent, and leave. Although they have the legal right to come after you and try to sue you for the FULL term of the lease (the remaining months), they might not do so because (a) they'll have to explain to a judge why they ignored your requests to fix the unit, (b) it might not be worth their time.

GOOD LUCK.

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Answered on 10/27/10, 8:52 am


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