Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California
(this is a questions posted earlier with a little more information added at the bottom)
In December our apartment flooded, and the apartment complex gave us the option the moving, staying elsewhere why it dried out, or staying in the apartment while repairs were being done. We chose option 2 and stayed at a family members place.
They instructed us to check in every day, which I did, and they said that we were being credited for each day we were out of our place.
The problem that we are facing now is that they won't pay for the entire we were out of our apartment. They are saying that it was deemed habitable on a certain date, but I didn't receive that information until a week later and I had checked in during that stretch and someone should have told me then.
The other problem I have is they left it a complete mess and expected us to move back in, thinking that it was ok to leave the place caked with the dust from the carpet & baseboard people.
Theres a bit more, they never bothered to update me on the status of my place when asked during the time we were out, and repeatedly never called back after leaving messages.
What kind of options do I have legally? They tried to get us to sign a form and give us a check for $300 the other day (45 days after the flooding). The form was a release of future claims. We didn't sign.
The amount is supposed to be a prorated amount based on the amount of days we were out. Our monthly rent is $1400, and we were out of our place 14 days.
2 Answers from Attorneys
I would suggest, assuming it was not your fault for the flooding] writing management a letter pointing out that at about $50 per day the owe you about $700 because you checked in as required, they did not call you back as was their duty, since the place was not cleaned up it actually was not ready to move back into when you did come back, the correct measure of damages is what it would reasonable cost to stay at a similar place and not pro rata rent [you agreed to a different form of damage but they breached the contract by not keeping in touch with you; much like the situation where a person has insurance on his car and someone runs into him, the other party is not allowed to deduct the amount paid by the insurance -- the apartment complex owner does not get to take advantage of your having a friend who provided free room]. If they will not pay you more you have to sue in Small Claims Court.
Sounds like the settlement offer should have been 14/31 x $1,400 or about $632, plus maybe a hundred or two to clean up the mess the workers left. I'd ask for $800 of abatement.
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