Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Actually, it is "duct" tape, because it was taping originally used to hold air ducts together. Now it is used for other things, like holding my car together. But that story is "ducking" your questions.

Yes the landlord could hire a collection agency. He could sue also. If I were you, I would consider suing him, and beating him to the punch. You may want to speak to an attorney in your area who is familiar with tenant's rights and lawsuits involving uninhabitability of rented properties.

Unfortunately you shot yourself in the foot a bit by not reporting the property to the proper health and housing authorities. By failing to get the property cited, and allowing the correction time to pass, you lost many rights you would otherwise have had based on uninhabitability. Similarly, being in violation of zoning and land-use is not grounds for breaking a lease unless the unit gets red-tagged. The only things you've mentioned that give you grounds for any relief are the lack of heating, and turning off your water. By failing to specifically demand a code-compliant heater, however, and neither calling the authorities nor using repair and deduct,instead electing to breach the lease, the best you can hope for is a defense to his collection efforts. The only thing you really have going for you is that it is very illegal to turn off utilities. You could cobble together some kind of constructive eviction claim on that, but you had already given notice you were breaching the lease. So the only way I can see you could assert an affirmative claim would be if you had to move out early due to no water. Then you would have a very very small claim for wrongful constructive eviction.

After you move out, he has a limited number of days to provide you with an accounting of everything he deducted and why, If not, you are entitled to 2x the deposit plus actual damages. A letter informing him of this usually does the trick. I handle these a lot.

Best,

Daniel Bakondi, Esq.

[email protected]

415-450-0424

The Law Office of Daniel Bakondi, APLC

870 Market Street, Suite 1161

San Francisco CA 94102

http://www.danielbakondi.com

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