Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

I live in West Los Angeles. I live in an apartment building and share the parking with other tenants. I was pulling into the garage on the apartment complex premises, when one of the tenants closed the garage door on top of my car. The garage door scrapped the entire roof of my car as well as a part of the passenger side. The paint on the roof and the hood of my car was damaged and chipped, and my car now has a dent on the passenger side. Lastly, the inside of my car was damaged due to the dent on the passenger side. I was surprised and extremely disappointed to find the garage door did not have motion sensors that would have stopped the door from closing if a person or object was in the garage door's path. The same tenant also informed me that in the past, the same garage door damaged her car when it did not sense it in it's pathway. After speaking with the Los Angeles Housing Department, they informed me that all garage-door openers must have sensor devices. I thought a law passed in 1993 that required this. I am not sure what I should do. I wrote the owner of the building an email, but he has not respondend yet. Who is responsible?


Asked on 9/04/09, 2:47 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Bryan Whipple Bryan R. R. Whipple, Attorney at Law

The law(s) you're thinking of are Health and Safety Code sections 19890 and 19891. First passed in 1990 I think, various provisions became effective on January 1st of various years. 19890 contains the regulations and 19891 contains the civil penalties for violations. There are no provisions requiring retrofitting of older non-complying doors that I know of or noticed upon giving the law a quick reading, the laws apply to manufacture, sale, initial installation and repair.

The laws are too lengthy to quote or explain in detail here, but they are easily understood by a non-lawyer if looked up and studied.

In your case, I would think liability may rest with the tenant who "lowered the boom" on you, assuming he or she was negligent in so doing. Why did the tenant do this, and was it done with a remote or a fixed-location pushbutton?

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Answered on 9/04/09, 3:20 pm


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