Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in California

Substantial breach of the implied warrenty of habitability?

We rented a REO home from a property management company 18 months ago with the assurance that all defects and damage would be corrected prior to us moving in. We paid our deposit and signed a one year lease in April 2009 our move in date was July 1, 2009. after being told over the phone that our home was ready to move in, we packed up the cars, truck and uhaul and made the 520 mile drive to find that nothing at all had been done. After complaining to the property manager she started having things fixed slowly but surely until she was fired for authorizing the repairs. Only a small portion of the damages were repaired and all work stopped. We lived for a year with extensive water leaks and black mold before the owner of the management company got tired of receiving our email complaints and came to the property to inspect all of the issues we have been complaining about. He and the new property manager acknowleged all of the issues. The new property manager even told us that the property should never have been rented due to its condition but both she and the owner seemed to focus only on us renewing our lease. We told them we were not comfortable renewing due to the lack of assistance we had been receiving with all the problems. We were assured by the owner of the management company that things were going to be corrected right away. After a month of waiting we complained some more and finally got a lot (not all) of the mold removed and one of the water leaks fixed. and the work stopped again. Since July of this year only some very small corrections have been made by the management companies maintenance person about half of the corrections he has mad are a direct result of the damage he has caused trying to fix things here. So with the last complaint made to them about the ongoing issues and one new issue of my wife stepping right through the upstairs rotted wood deck this month, 6 days later we get a notice of termination of tenancy. I believe this to be retaliation due to our complaints. I am going to try to find an attorney this week but I just dont know how to find the right one. Any advice, suggestions and or opinions would be very helpful right now.

Kindest regards,

Scott


Asked on 11/21/10, 7:07 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Aimee Morris

The key is to document everything with your landlord in writing. Verbal notification is fine as long as you always back it up with a writing.

You should have received a 60-day notice. If you properly documented everything in writing, you may be able to allege retaliatory eviction. Look at your lease and see if attorney fees are provided for in the lease. It doesn't matter if they are one-sided in favor of the landlord; they are interpreted to be mutually applicable to a prevailing tenant.

If you did not document everything in writing, I would write them a polite confirming letter immediately stating what has happened for the past year, and politely indicating that you consider their 60-day notice to be in retaliation for your demands that they repair the leasehold.

Indeed, because the premises was in such an uninhabitable state for so long, you may be able to have a judge order a reduction in your rent for the time that you were living with the black mold, etc. Should you prevail, then your landlord would not be able to evict you for 6 months. If you need help with these matters within the County of San Diego, please call 619-991-0548.

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Answered on 12/07/10, 8:44 am


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