A
anakingus
Guest
Hello,
I am a resident in Sunnyvale, CA. I rent a studio at $ 1475, an outrageous but justfiable price in this area...
Recently, I have had a maltreatment with my apartment management and like to know if there is anything that I could do.
In early December, I was charged for the late apartment charge in a ridiculous way. I was one or two days late (even it is not clear as my check says Dec 2nd.) and the apartment dropped me a less than 24 hour notice on Sunday afternoon saying that I should pay for $ 50 late fee by Monday.
This event ignited my unpleasant experience with this apartment management for the last several months. I have had no working light at my kitchen for one month, giving me incredible incovenience. Worse, my door would open, even after you lock the doorknob. These two defects obviously could not have been a pleasant experience to me. One day, I left a post-it on one of the workers' tables in the management lobby, requesting for repair but it was not done for over one month. But because they are so interested in receiving $ 50 dollar late fee, they would give me less than 24 hour notice to pay the late fee. Therefore, I wrote a letter complaining about the unreasonably short notice and the repair not being done.
Next day, the apartment management gave me a call briefly saying that it would gladly fix it and starting to go over how i should pay for the late fee, without mentioning my complaint on less than 24 hour notice. It also said it would deduct 50 dollars from my next month rent if not paid on time. Let it be. Then, I waited another month. No repair done.
I finally complained again in the beginnning of the next month (January, 2001). The apartment management said it could not fix the apartment because I never responded to the telephone call asking me for permission to enter the apartment. This NEVER happened. The described phone call talking extensively on the rent was the only call I received and it never mentioned it needed permission to enter the apartment. The apartment management vehenmently said it did ask for permission in that phone call, and as for the less than 24 hour notice, it said it could even give me less than 2 hour noice if it had wanted to since it was my obligation to pay the late fee.
Because I was merely forced to pay the late fee, I decided to send the check first and complain about its procedure. (The apartment said it would send me 3 day pay or leave notice someday. When I asked when it would send that to me, the manager said it could be any day and cannot give me any time line.)
I also heard from my friend at law that the notice, unless specified in our contract, should be "reasonable" and less than 24 hour notice is likely to be found unreasonable by the court. Also, I heard that there was a depreciation of the property value for which I pay 1475 dollars per month because it did not maintain the apartment in proper conditions despite my written request. Therefore, I heard that there could be soem reduction in the rent that I pay. If you quantify 50 dollars in percentage of my total apartment fee, it turns out to be 3.4 % of one month rent. I had this problem for more than two months and it seemed quite reasonable to think that the inconvenience due to no kitchen light and no working door knob seemed to have depreciated far more than 3.4 % of my rent value per month.
I finally complained to the apartment manager's supervior, who even aggravated the situation by bringing out false facts. She claimed that the aparment manager had said she left two messages instead of one-- one message for apartment repair and the other for the late fee. She also told me that the management does not leave less than 24 hour nocies for the late fee, although in this case it did. Ironically, the apartment manager told me that she gave this letter to every resident who did not pay on time. Futhermore, she said the apartment management does not specify a date for the late fee although the apartment manager said, "I have to put a date like that; otherwise, none of our apartment residents would pay the fee." I even still have the document photocopied for the less than 24 hour notice.
As for the repair, she said that unless the place was "uninhabitable", she could not give me any reduction in rent. She said her definition of being not habitable was in an unlivable situation such as where you simply cannot live because there was a wall or a roof collapsed or something. I simply find this ridiculous.
I like to know if there is anything that I could legally do for this type of maltreatment and get compensated for the lack of response to repair as well as the less than 24 hour deadline I was given and gone silent and ignored when complained.
I am a resident in Sunnyvale, CA. I rent a studio at $ 1475, an outrageous but justfiable price in this area...
Recently, I have had a maltreatment with my apartment management and like to know if there is anything that I could do.
In early December, I was charged for the late apartment charge in a ridiculous way. I was one or two days late (even it is not clear as my check says Dec 2nd.) and the apartment dropped me a less than 24 hour notice on Sunday afternoon saying that I should pay for $ 50 late fee by Monday.
This event ignited my unpleasant experience with this apartment management for the last several months. I have had no working light at my kitchen for one month, giving me incredible incovenience. Worse, my door would open, even after you lock the doorknob. These two defects obviously could not have been a pleasant experience to me. One day, I left a post-it on one of the workers' tables in the management lobby, requesting for repair but it was not done for over one month. But because they are so interested in receiving $ 50 dollar late fee, they would give me less than 24 hour notice to pay the late fee. Therefore, I wrote a letter complaining about the unreasonably short notice and the repair not being done.
Next day, the apartment management gave me a call briefly saying that it would gladly fix it and starting to go over how i should pay for the late fee, without mentioning my complaint on less than 24 hour notice. It also said it would deduct 50 dollars from my next month rent if not paid on time. Let it be. Then, I waited another month. No repair done.
I finally complained again in the beginnning of the next month (January, 2001). The apartment management said it could not fix the apartment because I never responded to the telephone call asking me for permission to enter the apartment. This NEVER happened. The described phone call talking extensively on the rent was the only call I received and it never mentioned it needed permission to enter the apartment. The apartment management vehenmently said it did ask for permission in that phone call, and as for the less than 24 hour notice, it said it could even give me less than 2 hour noice if it had wanted to since it was my obligation to pay the late fee.
Because I was merely forced to pay the late fee, I decided to send the check first and complain about its procedure. (The apartment said it would send me 3 day pay or leave notice someday. When I asked when it would send that to me, the manager said it could be any day and cannot give me any time line.)
I also heard from my friend at law that the notice, unless specified in our contract, should be "reasonable" and less than 24 hour notice is likely to be found unreasonable by the court. Also, I heard that there was a depreciation of the property value for which I pay 1475 dollars per month because it did not maintain the apartment in proper conditions despite my written request. Therefore, I heard that there could be soem reduction in the rent that I pay. If you quantify 50 dollars in percentage of my total apartment fee, it turns out to be 3.4 % of one month rent. I had this problem for more than two months and it seemed quite reasonable to think that the inconvenience due to no kitchen light and no working door knob seemed to have depreciated far more than 3.4 % of my rent value per month.
I finally complained to the apartment manager's supervior, who even aggravated the situation by bringing out false facts. She claimed that the aparment manager had said she left two messages instead of one-- one message for apartment repair and the other for the late fee. She also told me that the management does not leave less than 24 hour nocies for the late fee, although in this case it did. Ironically, the apartment manager told me that she gave this letter to every resident who did not pay on time. Futhermore, she said the apartment management does not specify a date for the late fee although the apartment manager said, "I have to put a date like that; otherwise, none of our apartment residents would pay the fee." I even still have the document photocopied for the less than 24 hour notice.
As for the repair, she said that unless the place was "uninhabitable", she could not give me any reduction in rent. She said her definition of being not habitable was in an unlivable situation such as where you simply cannot live because there was a wall or a roof collapsed or something. I simply find this ridiculous.
I like to know if there is anything that I could legally do for this type of maltreatment and get compensated for the lack of response to repair as well as the less than 24 hour deadline I was given and gone silent and ignored when complained.