Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

lost rent checks

my landlords have lost several of my rent checks...so far I have always re-written them, but I would like to know if I was LEGALLY obligated to do it.

(This isn't just an idle question, or an attempt to get out of paying rent...they are trying to get out of paying me for damages caused by faulty plumbing by refusing to re-write their check which I lost. They've told me that they ''paid'' me back by not raising my rent 8 months ago as they were ''planning'' to do!)


Asked on 9/27/02, 3:24 am

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

Re: lost rent checks

I tried this one out on several colleagues, including one who sometimes serves as a small claims judge 'pro tem.' Ou opinion is that the tenant must replace the lost checks or otherwise make payment upon request, but that the landlord must reimburse the tenant for the bank's 'stop payment' charge. This is based on the principle that the tenant would be 'unjustly enriched' by getting the benefit of the leased premises without really making payment, and that the landlord's fault in the matter is relatively trivial.

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Answered on 9/27/02, 1:15 pm


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