Repairs Needed

When the landlord won’t fix things, you have powerful rights, but you have to know what to do, when, and how to do it, or you fail.

Repairs

The law requires landlords to provide a habitable place to live, called the Implied Warranty of Habitability. It applies to residential rentals, even artist loft work/home situations, but nor businesses. There are also building laws that require certain structural standards, and prohibit illegal construction like garage conversions into apartments. There are health laws that protect you from infestations of cockroaches, rats, mice, spiders, mold, and other living things, as well as from lead and asbestos. You have rights under your rental agreement, as well as special laws that require particular things and give you the right to fix them yourself, if the landlord will not. You have the right to withhold your rent to force the landlord to fix things, and to sue the landlord to get a court order to fix things and pay you money for failing to do so.

Some cities in California have special laws that require periodic inspections by city housing inspectors, allow you to have your rent reduced, or even for the city to take over the building to make the repairs. If the landlord tries to evict you for taking action, there are strong defenses you can raise to win the case, and then sue the landlord for trying to evict you.

Through this article and the accompanying video on this page, you will learn about these rights and how to best exercise them. The landlord is hoping that you don’t know about these, so he can bully you into silence. Obeying the law and providing you with a decent place to live cuts into the landlord’s profits, so he’s not going to allow it without a fight.  Not all landlords act this way, and if presented with a request to fix their own property, that kind will just do it, because they are keeping up their own property and are doing the right thing by you. Obviously, yours is not like that, or you wouldn’t be reading this.

Deceit

Before renting you the place, the landlord is required by law to tell you about all the defects, so that you will be able to decide if you want to rent the place and pay the amount requested. Failing to do that is called deceit, a form of fraud, because by their silence, they are implying that the place is in perfect condition. Chances are, the landlord does know about the problems, because the last tenant told him, or he discovered the defects when doing the security deposit inspection after that tenant left.
In your typical viewing before signing the rental agreement, you are checking for room size and general features, not checking the heating, plumbing, electrical system, infestation problems or noisy neighbors. A lease that says you have inspected and found no defects is just more fraud, and does not excuse the landlord’s silence.  They want to commit you to pay top-dollar rent on a lease which you would not have done if they had been candid as the law requires. That deceit, called “fraud in the inducement,” gives you the right to cancel your lease at any time and sue the landlord to get all your money back, as well as compensation for what his dishonesty caused you to suffer.
If you get mail addressed to the former tenant when you first move in, you should make contact to see how it was, and what problems the landlord knew about.  You mail a letter to that former tenant addressed to that person at the address where you just moved in, and in the lower left section of the envelope, write “address corrections requested.” You will get the envelope back with the forwarding address.  Then you write to that tenant at their new address as ask if there were defects that the landlord knew about, and how it was dealing with that landlord. You may get an ear full.  You can include your phone and email. The landlord may have stolen that tenant’s deposit for repairs that were never made. You can also offer to forward mail or other contacts to that tenant at their new address, in gratitude.

Making a List

Whether you make the list when you first move in, when you discover the first problem, or only when the situation has become unbearable, you need to get organized.  From this page, you can download the Habitability Worksheet, a convenient set of checklists and organizational tools to get a list of all the defects you can find. You may be surprised at how many you find, from missing screens to a nonworking furnace.  You organize them into a list, from worst to least, and take pictures. When in doubt, list it.  If the landlord did illegal construction, like adding a room or converting the garage to living space, you will find lots of defects because it was done by handymen and day laborers. Licensed contractors would not risk their license, fines, reputation or reputation with the city building inspectors by trying to get away with illegal construction.

Armed with the list, you are ready to take action.

Contacting the Landlord

A polite but firm letter to the landlord about the defects, of which you keep a copy, is your next step. It could solve the problems in a friendly fashion, but it is at least the legal prerequisite to your taking further action.  You can say that you expect that the landlord takes pride in maintaining their own property, but that he may not have known, or overlooked these defects, which you would like him to correct ASAP.  You are not threatening, just asking. You can suggest a date and time when he can come over and see for himself. His response to your letter, including no response, will show his colors.

Contacting Government Inspectors

Without spending a dime, you can take effective action by calling the government agencies whose job it is to make inspections and cite the landlords, enforced by fines, imprisonment and more. A phone call makes it happen.  You tell them about a couple of the most important problems, explain that your landlord refuses to fix them, and how it is affecting you. They set up an inspection, you show them your list of defects and point out each one, and they go down their checklist to see which are violations.  They don’t cover everything, and there might be some overlap, but you get their business card and arrange to get a copy of any communication they have with your landlord, because if the landlord retaliates by trying to evict you, you need to show that the landlord knew about your complaint. It should not be a problem to get that, but the city council or county supervisors can tell the inspector to give it to you.

The building department is generally limited to structural defects that are Building Code violations, not necessarily concerning habitability. When you call them, ask for “Code Enforcement.” It might be a Code violation to use aluminum nails instead of steel, but that doesn’t affect you. Cockroach infestations are not on their list, but an improperly vented stove might be. It’s a long list, but you want to be sure that they consider everything on your list, and include it in their citation if it is also a Code violation.  A gas leak or anything to do with natural gas or propane in your home should be reported to the company, like PG&E or SoCalGas. They will some out immediately, note the problem, and red tag the situation, meaning you can’t safely use it. The building department then accepts and enforces the gas company’s assessment.
The fire department has its own inspectors, who are concerned about fire issues, from expired extinguishers to dangerous chemicals or fire hazards, including sparking wires that could cause a fire. You call the non-emergency line and ask for the fire inspector. They come out immediately and contact the landlord.

The County health department has two divisions, which you should ask for when calling. For cockroaches, mice, mold, wasps, spiders, and other living things that might affect your health, you want Vector Control or Vector Management.  They use the geometric term to suggest spreading of disease. They want to see cockroach or mice droppings, the actual mold, and the like. Then they should require the landlord to abate the nuisance by licensed companies and show their abatement report. Mold abatement is rarely covered by landlords’ insurance policies and can be very expensive, with the HazMat space suit guys and having to pay for your temporary relocation out of pocket.

The other Health Department division is generally called something like “Environmental Services,” which concerns asbestos and lead contamination, but also sewage leaks, and other physical conditions that could endanger you.  Older buildings often have asbestos in the “popcorn” ceilings and inside the heating ventilation ducts, as well as lead-based paint on the walls.  They can require the landlord to abate those dangers, which again can be very expensive and not insured to repair.

There are four benefits to having the government inspectors involved in this way. The first is that they can get the job done, where the landlord might refuse and bully you. The second is that you have the proof that the problem you told the landlord about does exist, since slumlords otherwise tell the judges that the problem did not exist, and was just a false excuse for your not paying rent. The third is that you have the protection against retaliation by showing that you exercised your right and the landlord immediately turned on you to evict, probably for another reason to conceal his retaliation. The fourth is that if the defect cited also affects habitability and it has not been corrected within 35 days of the date of the citation, you have the legal right to withhold rent under Civil Code 1942.4, even if the defect is a minor one.

Taking Action

This part uses that list of defects you made and gave to the landlord in a nice letter asking him to fix them. With or without the government citations, you have special rights of Civil Code section 1942.  If there are any habitability defects (even minor ones) that the landlord does not fix within a reasonable time, you have the right to terminate the lease, without notice, despite what the lease may say, and over the landlord’s objection. You don’t owe any “early termination” penalties. Any contract parts that minimize your rights as to section 1942 are themselves illegal and without effect. Move out, then sue.

You also have the right to fix defects under section 1942, even if the landlord and the lease say you can’t. It’s called the right to Repair and Deduct. Any lease part that tries to minimize these rights is itself illegal and has no effect. The landlord can’t stop you from hiring the people and getting it fixed, nor are you required to find the lease expensive person.

Unlike just moving out, which you can do without waiting, to repair and deduct, you have to wait a “reasonable time,” which is 30 days unless a shorter time is reasonable, like no water, a toilet that doesn’t flush or lack of heat would justify.   You can make several repairs at once, but you can only do this deduction twice per year. You can spend up to one months’ rent two months in a row, so if your rent is $2000 per month and the repair is $3500, you can have the repairman make one receipt for $1500 to inspect and prepare and the other for $2000 to do the work. You keep a copy of the receipts, submit the receipts for the work that was done with your reduced rent check, and in the memo portion of the check, write “repair and deduct CC 1942″ so it is clear what happened to the rest of the rent.  The landlord may be furious, but he legally can’t do anything about it, because you have this solid right.

Suing the Landlord

You can get more detail on this strategy in the article about that and the accompanying video. If the landlord knew about the defects but didn’t tell you, or promised to fix things before you moved in, or even promised to fix something but never did, you have plenty to sue the landlord for. Fraud, deceit, nuisance, breach of contract, negligence, maybe retaliation, and other things are all yours to pursue. You can sue in small claims court, with the $12,500 limitation on each case, or in Superior Court for more. In Superior Court, you can get an injunction (=court order) for the landlord to fix it, in addition to paying you for what you suffered.
Major Construction

By the inspector’s citation, court order, or just in response to your request, the landlord may be forced to make a major repair which will last for a while, during which time you will not be able to live there.  Some cities, like Los Angeles, has a special law that requires the landlord to pay for your hotel, meals, and other expenses, but most cities do not. In this section, you will find the Temporary Relocation agreement that you can have to allow the work to be done without abusing you. 

The fact that you were the one requesting these repairs to be made does not require you to let the workmen come in at any time and make your place a construction zone, or require you to pay for your own temporary relocation for an indefinite time.  Slumlords punish you for complaining or reporting them by making your place uninhabitable as a construction zone for an extended period of time, until you can’t afford it and give up. Our agreement you download from here protects you from the kinds of abuse they might try, including making the landlord severely liable for taking too long to complete the work.  If he doesn’t want to sign it, you don’t have to leave. You sue him and the government prosecutes him for violating their citation. He could just pay you an even larger amount just to permanently so, rather than return, but that is up to you.

You are in charge. The landlord is not. Use these powers you have to get results. And have fun.