Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Re: legal notice of change of terms of tenancy

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NOW, IN RESPONSE TO YOUR INQUIRY --

Gouging Rent Increases

Normally, rent can be increased with a 30-day notice. However, due to the current wave of rent hikes, effective January 1, 2001, newly revised Civil Code Section 827 requires a 60-day notice if the rent increase will make that year's increases exceed 10%. The idea is to give tenants the ability to adjust to gouging rent increases, but not to stop them. The calculation is a little weird; it doesn't have to be a large rent increase at once, but just the total of increases over a year. This new law will mostly affect the expensive rentals, which also tend to have proportionately much bigger hikes. Also, it does not affect yearly leases, but only month-to-month [or shorter] tenancies. This law expires automatically in 2006, unless the Legislature extends the time or makes it permanent.

For example, if last year in January you were paying $500, and the landlord already raised the rent $25 in July, an increase for more than $25 this January would require a 60-day notice, because the total of increases for the year would be more than $50, 10% of $500. If the increase total was 10% or less for the year, all you get is the 30-day notice. If the year's rent increases already total 10% and the landlord then wants to increase rent by one dollar, it has to be by 60-day notice, to mitigate the impact.

The new law also adds 5 days for mailed notices of change of terms of tenancy. A mailed 30-day notice is effective 35 days later; a mailed 60-day notice is effective 65 days later.

From: www.caltenantlaw.com -- Attorney Ken Carlson's great website for tenants

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Re: legal notice of change of terms of tenancy

Why is a 20% rent increase funny?

A rent-increase notice can be served in three ways: (1) personal service, (2) mail (which extends the notice period by 5 days), or (3) any other method if the tenant acknowledges receiving the notice.

Thus, the posted notice is not effective unless you, in some way or another, admit you saw it, such as waving it in the manager's face while chiding her for 'improper' service. Hello, you've just been served!

I'm not sure what the effect of the incorrect date would be. If it were a 30-day notice starting an unlawful detainer, I'd say the notice was probably fatally defective, and the landlord would have to start the process over with a new notice. I'm not so sure a small-claims judge would find this date error fatal to a rent-increase notice, especially since it is clearly an error and not an attempt to falsify.

How interested are you in continuing to reside at this location? If you attack the notice, you may win the battle but lose the war. The defective notice and defective service could threafter be replaced with a proper notice for a 25% increase or whatever management thinks it needs to 'make itself whole' for rent lost while correcting the mistakes -- or they could just terminate you.

Finally, as you probably know, a 10% increase requires 30 days' notice and greater than 10% requires 60 days; add five days for mail service, which can be by ordinary first-class mail.