Tenant Maintainance Responsibilities

[vickster]

What is the name of your state? California

My landlord has just replaced a fence that was falling down, the foliage on it was what was holding it up. He had the old fence removed, but left the foliage for us to remove. I've emailed him that I think it's not our responsibility- the replacement of the fence was not due to our negligence- but he states the rental agreement clearly says that lawn and shrubbery maintainance is the tenant's responsibility. My argument for this is that this is not maintainance, this clean-up is part of the repair of the fence. I don't believe he's trying to take advantage of us, he truly believes this is maintainance.

The pile that needs to be cleared is 20x6x8. He replaced 67 feet of fence and a good 47 feet of that was covered with foliage that was here long before we moved in, and we have been here over 7 years. I have trimmed this foliage back every year.

Am I correct here that this is not maintainance, and if so, how do I convince him?

 

[JETX]

"Am I correct here that this is not maintainance, and if so, how do I convince him?"
*** As I see it (without the ability to ACTUALLY see it!), the reason that the foliage is so long is that proper maintenance was NOT performed on it. If that is the case, then its current condition is YOURS to fix/remove.

However, there is actually a more important question here. Before you go out of the way to piss off your landlord, you need to ask yourself.... how important is this really???
Reason:
If you are a month-to-month tenant (without a term lease), then your landlord can simply tell you to leave with a 30 day notice.
Or if you have a term lease and near the end of it, the landlord can simply decide to NOT renew it.

So, what IS your lease status and how interested are you in moving??

 

[vickster]

We kept the foliage the way it was when we originally rented the property. There was always foliage on the fence, how should I have known I was supposed to remove it? That would have been the only way to keep it from overtaking the fence- although some of that growth came from the property on the other side. I kept it trimmed back every year.

The owner is open to selling us this property, so I'm not worried about being evicted, we've been on-time renters for over 7 years.

 

[JETX]

Okay, then what do you expect from this forum???
Do you expect US to come by and pick up the pile of debris for you???

 

[vickster]

Well Jet,
Say this pile is OUR responsibility, what happens when the owner decides to replace the lawn because the tree's roots have destroyed the lawn? Will we have to dispose of the two large trees causing the damage because we somehow didn't properly maintain them? There is a pile of debris in our yard that we did not create, we maintained the foliage to it's original state, are you saying anything that becomes too large while we are tenants falls under our responsibility?

Can someone give me another opinion? Is Jet correct?

 

[JETX]

Okay, lets try this again.... real slow....

"Say this pile is OUR responsibility, what happens when the owner decides to replace the lawn because the tree's roots have destroyed the lawn?"
*** You cross that bridge if and when you come to it.

"Will we have to dispose of the two large trees causing the damage because we somehow didn't properly maintain them?"
*** See above.

"There is a pile of debris in our yard that we did not create, we maintained the foliage to it's original state, are you saying anything that becomes too large while we are tenants falls under our responsibility?"
*** Okay, don't clean it up. Let me make this clear for you.... this is a childish idiotic problem. You both sound like little children, both claiming that the mess was made by the other person and "I am NOT going to clean it up".
Okay, as I see it, your options are:
1) Nobody clean it up. Let it sit there until mother nature takes care of it for you by allowing it to decay, or the neighbors call the city/county, or
2) You clean it up. Of course this is what your landlord hopes you will do, or
3) You continue playing games and ignore the pile arguing with your landlord that it is 'NOT MY MESS". Obviously, at some point your landlord will get sufficiently pissed that he will somehow manage to terminate your lease and force you to move. And when he does that, he will deduct the cost of removing the pile of debris from your deposit...... and force you to take the step of legal action to try to recover the deduction.

So, which of the above is going to happen??? Who cares??

 

[krispenstpeter]

Can someone give me another opinion? Is Jet correct?

Yes he is correct.

The two of you are acting like children.

 

[HomeGuru]

And I'm of the same opinion.

 

[vickster]

Thank you all for the advice.

Bottom line is Landlords can come in, do whatever repairs/improvements they want (including those not caused by tenants), and tenants have to clean up the debris. And I thought CA was trying to provide tenants with some rights.

All tenants beware.

 

[JETX]

And more importantly, all LANDLORDS beware of tenants who don't understand their obligations or responsibilities.

 

[HomeGuru]

Thank you all for the advice.

Bottom line is Landlords can come in, do whatever repairs/improvements they want (including those not caused by tenants), and tenants have to clean up the debris. And I thought CA was trying to provide tenants with some rights.

**A: total BS. It is obvious that you do not have knowledge of the CA Civil Codes.

 

[vickster]

Duh.

If I knew the CA civil codes, why would a post a question here.

 

[HomeGuru]

Duh.

If I knew the CA civil codes, why would a post a question here.

**A: I don't know why would ass post a question here.