Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California
WRITTEN RENTAL AGREEMENT - LIABILITY OF UNSIGNING CO-TENANt
The negotiations and agreement to the rental were done by one tenant and his signature is on the rental agreement. His girlfriend lives there also but was not involved with the negotioations or asked to sign the agreement. She did, however, complete a tenant application for the rental and paid the security deposit with her check. In addition, in an effort to get these tenants to rent, the landlord offered to make some modifications to acomodate the girlfriend's disability. The landlady filed an unlawful detainer action against both parties. Is the girlfriend liable for any damages? If the judgement is against them, will the girlfriend have an unlawful detainer on her credit report? What can be done to protect against that if the girlfriend never accepted the responsibility to pay rent?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Two tenants, one only on lease.
I am not a CA atty and frankly not qualified,but you might draw some inferences from my Mass.state knowledge.
Here, a 'guest' of a party who signed a lease is liablefor rent as would be a tenant-at-will (without a lease).Not signing the lease doesn't mean she isn't partlyresponsible for paying rent!
If the landlord didn't make the modifications promised, then that may be a defense as well as a counterclaim, thefailure to meet the conditions may be condition precedentinvalidating the lease, and a judge might ammend the rentalrate (downward!) even retroactively -- at least in Mass.that would be true! Furthermore, there are many protectionsfor the disabled under the law which could entitle you to to some sort of monetary compensation.
Also, here in Mass., tenants may go to (or call) a legal services bureau and will often get free legal advice and representation. Over 95% of unrepresented tenants lose their cases in court. I recommend you seek local counsel.
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