Please be aware that submission of this no-obligation form does not establish an attorney-client relationship. By filling out the form, you agree to receiving emails from our firm regarding your case evaluation and other helpful resources. Skip to content. Our Firm Steven A. Jethro S. Olivia Dopler. Stephanie Foster. Lan Nguyen Fullerton. Anna Liu.
Adrienne Sawan. Tiffany W. Landlord-Tenant Law Evictions. Ellis Act Evictions. Eviction Defense. Eviction Process. Just Causes for Eviction.
Rent Control. Habitability Issues. Commercial Landlord Tenant Disputes. Landlord Prerogatives. Short-Term Rental Service Issues. Who is a Landlord? Who is a Tenant? Landlord Rent Calculator. A renter who leaves the carpet littered with food can't blame the landlord for cockroaches, for instance; if he breaks a window or clogs up the toilet by trying to flush newspapers, these things are also the renter's responsibility to fix.
A graduate of Oberlin College, Fraser Sherman began writing in Since then he's researched and written newspaper and magazine stories on city government, court cases, business, real estate and finance, the uses of new technologies and film history.
By Fraser Sherman. Related Articles. Function Rental apartments and homes come with a "warranty of habitability. Features Malfunctions can breach the warranty even if they don't make the apartment literally unlivable, the California Department of Community Affairs states.
Considerations Tenants planning to use their legal remedies should be prepared for a landlord to deny the problems, blame the problems on the renters or insist he was never informed. Rather than cite the landlord for repairs needed, DBI may issue an order to legalize the unit or shut it down and you may be evicted.
If the unit is illegal, contact the Code Enforcement Outreach Program. Usually, when one tenant has repair problems, all the tenants do. You stand a much better chance of getting repairs made if you all act together. Talk to other tenants, exchange email addresses, and once you have a few interested people, call a meeting. Send your landlord a list of demands, call the Building Inspector and file Rent Board petitions together see below.
If you take any of the actions, you are much stronger when you act collectively. This is the safest option to use to get repairs as it does not entail the risks of rent withholding, but it can take months to get a hearing and your rent may be reduced less than you think it should be. You will need to file a petition separately for each rental unit, but you can request that the petitions for you and your neighbors to be heard together ask the Rent Board how to do this.
You can sue in Small Claims or if you have many serious violations, talk to a tenant attorney. It is illegal for a landlord to demand or collect rent for an apartment which has serious habitability problems and you may be able to sue for part of the rent you have paid while living in substandard conditions.
But you must be able to show that the landlord knew of the problem, had time to fix it, and did not. You should not withhold your rent until you have talked with a Tenants Union counselor and learned exactly what steps you must take. You can do this twice in a 12 month period and you could do it 2 months in a row.
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