Multiple Issues with Landlor

[jenn24]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? California

Some background-

I live in a downstairs unit that my landord converted into an apartment. Landlord and his wife live upstairs. I moved here in the middle of October. Have a 1 year lease that is pretty comprehensive. Rent is $1550, Security Deposit is $1750

Landlord and his wife gave me a letter on Monday with five of their "concerns".

1st concern was I am no longer allowed to take a bath because the water in the pipes is too loud and is ruining their "peaceful environment" upstairs.

Second concern was I receive too much mail and packages.

Third concern was something about the heater and placing things too close to it.

Fourth concern was my food garbage being uncovered.

Fifth concern was them accusing me of leaving the door to the garage unlocked.

Also included in the letter was them admitting that they had entered my apartment on at least 2 occasions that I didn't know about to "look around and inspect" the apartment.

At the end of the letter was a statement saying I had to sign this paper agreeing to change all of these things or else they would evict me in 30 days. They also requested an increase in my security deposit.

I responded with a letter explaining to them that it was illegal to enter my apartment without written notice and that they could not restrict my use of the bathroom.

They have just given me another letter stating that due to me taking a 15 minute shower on Wednesday morning (yes they time it!) and leaving a light on while I was at work, I have "committed waste" which is a violation of our lease agreement and grounds for immediate eviction. Letter stated I have to vacate the premises by February 28, 2014 UNLESS I agreed to an rent increase of $500/month and doubling my security deposit to $3500. They also made a lot of baseless accusations and have threatened to keep my security deposit and take me to small claims court.

I don't want to stay here and am looking for a new place, but it takes time to find something where I live. I don't want to give into their bullying and let them make me homeless. I've done some research and it appears that everything they are doing and asking is illegal, but just wanted some input from others.

Thanks in advance.

 

[FarmerJ]

Id suggest 1 you can make them take you to court where they will be given the chance to look like fools in front of a judge 2 do not sign any lease amendments, they have admitted on paper they violated your privacy by failing to give to you notice for non emergency entry. 3 make copies of those letters and save them away from this place like a bank box. As far as heaters go I guess if they did not spell out how far things were to be from it or put yellow tape line on the floor that they might be splitting hairs. Food garbage, unless your lease says HOW you are to handle trash then personally I wouldnt mind watching them talk about that in court. Light being left on when your not home , well thats a tough call because it could be construed as wasting utility. Garage door well who knows maybe the martians followed them in one night after they were at the pink elephant bar. Do not pay the extortion but do contact your city / county zoning desk / inspections desk and learn if this structure is zoned as a two family home, if there is to be a rental license ,where it is to be posted. If your LL has created the second unit with out following local laws then the unit may be deemed a non conforming/ Illegal unit where the city may want you to move out. If this happens you want a copy of this order for your records since you will have to move.

 

[justalayman]

I would suggest negotiating a termination of the lease. You want out. They apparently want you out. So far it does not appear they have the basis for removing you and you do not have a right to unilaterally terminate the lease.

I do not see the shower or the leaving the light on as waste of such a degree as to allow for a termination. While in the strictest definition of the term is would be, I do not believe a court would see it as adequate to support a termination of the lease.

So, I would simply pose the solution that you enter into a written agreement to terminate the lease. Reserve an adequate amount of time to find replacement housing. Be certain to include your deposit not be retained due to the early termination of the lease. In other words; leave current law in place regarding damages and time limits on the landlord to refund the deposit and/or provide proper notice regarding a claim for damages.

 

[BL]

1st concern was I am no longer allowed to take a bath because the water in the pipes is too loud and is ruining their "peaceful environment" upstairs.


They have just given me another letter stating that due to me taking a 15 minute shower on Wednesday morning (yes they time it!) and leaving a light on while I was at work, I have "committed waste" which is a violation of our lease agreement and grounds for immediate eviction.

So you can't take a bath ,but can take a shower ?

What a laugh...

I agree with the other two posters.

Tell them they can waste their money on trying to evict , or work it out in writing where you are able to afford to move without penalty.

 

[Proserpina]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? California

Some background-

I live a downstairs unit that my landord converted into an apartment. Landlord and his wife live upstairs. I moved here in the middle of October. Have a 1 year lease that is pretty comprehensive. Rent is $1550, Security Deposit is $1750

Landlord and his wife gave me a letter on Monday with five of their "concerns".

1st concern was I am no longer allowed to take a bath because the water in the pipes is too loud and is ruining their "peaceful environment" upstairs.

They've GOT to be kidding. I'd be taking two baths every day just on principle. Heck I'd call them therapeutic too.

Second concern was I receive too much mail and packages.

What. The. Heck? What are they smoking?! I wonder how they'd feel if someone somewhere suggested that they pay for a PO Box for you.

Third concern was something about the heater and placing things too close to it.

Fourth concern was my food garbage being uncovered.

Fifth concern was them accusing me of leaving the door to the garage unlocked.

Okay, these might be a teeny tiny issue. But not to any great extent.

Also included in the letter was them admitting that they had entered my apartment on at least 2 occasions that I didn't know about to "look around and inspect" the apartment.

I take that back. They're completely out of line.

At the end of the letter was a statement saying I had to sign this paper agreeing to change all of these things or else they would evict me in 30 days. They also requested an increase in my security deposit.

I responded with a letter explaining to them that it was illegal to enter my apartment without written notice and that they could not restrict my use of the bathroom.

They have just given me another letter stating that due to me taking a 15 minute shower on Wednesday morning (yes they time it!) and leaving a light on while I was at work, I have "committed waste" which is a violation of our lease agreement and grounds for immediate eviction. Letter stated I have to vacate the premises by February 28, 2014 UNLESS I agreed to an rent increase of $500/month and doubling my security deposit to $3500. They also made a lot of baseless accusations and have threatened to keep my security deposit and take me to small claims court.

I don't want to stay here and am looking for a new place, but it takes time to find something where I live. I don't want to give into their bullying and let them make me homeless. I've done some research and it appears that everything they are doing and asking is illegal, but just wanted some input from others.

Thanks in advance.

Like the others who responded, I'd be VERY tempted to let them take you to court. The only reason I wouldn't, is that on the offchance you get a judge who is also a landlord and their tenant has just absconded, he might sympathize with your landlord.

 

[FarmerJ]

I agree that yes it may be a lot better to get them to agree to early termination with no penalty to you in writing but since it appears these people may have the attitude of ` its my house , i live here too, i can watch you and walk in when ever I want because i am your G_d complex its possible they will even fight that one so if that happens then go ahead and call inspections to learn if the unit you are in is legal or not, (also store your copy of the lease off site too) and dig in your heels and stay put , Unless your lease allows for a change it is to be your landlords bible and they cannot just force you to agree to changes btw if your city says that this conversion they did to make two apts is not legal make darn sure you get a copy of that report for your records because it will help you if you must sue the LL for your deposit, and do not worry to much if you get a judge who is a landlord because if a judge does not follow the law or is so blatantly unfair every judge out there now knows that every thing they do is public and really bad bad decisions can become media fodder that can bite them back.

 

[jenn24]

Thanks everyone. I am searching for something else and am hoping that I can move as soon as possible. Until then I have to stay here and make this work. Crazy thing is I work at least 10 hours a day and travel a lot for work. As a result I never get home before 8 PM, have been gone for at least 6 weeks since moving here, so I am really not here that much.

With the garbage they have somehow convinced themselves that I am not disposing of my garbage correctly and keep my food garbage in a garbage can without a lid. My solution is that I am now taking the garbage out every day as I leave for work and took a picture to show my garbage can with a lid.

With the heater it was some vague issue about putting things too close as it can be dangerous. I acknowledged their safety concerns and stated that I will make sure that nothing gets too close.

As far as the "committing waste", I did some research and found that the legal definition of waste in this context is damaging the property by bringing down the value of the property, not wasting water and/or electricity, so I don't believe that it applys in this situation.

I spoke with the previous tenant and she had almost identical issues to me including them entering the apartment illegally, telling her not to take a bath, accusations about leaving the garage door open, disposing the garbage, etc, so these are not new behaviors from them. She also very firmly told them that it's illegal to enter the apartment without a 24 hour written notice, so this did know this rule. I'm starting to think that they have some paranoia and possibly mental health issues and will be happy when I can move somewhere else.

 

[FarmerJ]

Its very likely that these people as I said think they are G_d because they own the place and live there and Ill bet they have not had alot of tenants challenge them for trying to impose rules that are not in the lease. Dont just leave make sure they give you a written release letter that says as of x date that they sign that ends your rental with no penalty other wise stand your ground and make sure your lease copy is in a safe place and suggest to them you will be installing a security system that can alert you when they enter and and vid record it and you will call the police for each and every non emergency entry , then tell them your not going anywhere and if they dont like it too bad for them should they try to evict you because you wont hesitate to go see a landlord tenant atty. If you can look it up online it might be useful to know if your address is zoned for multi family.

 

[LdiJ]

Its very likely that these people as I said think they are G_d because they own the place and live there and Ill bet they have not had alot of tenants challenge them for trying to impose rules that are not in the lease. Dont just leave make sure they give you a written release letter that says as of x date that they sign that ends your rental with no penalty other wise stand your ground and make sure your lease copy is in a safe place and suggest to them you will be installing a security system that can alert you when they enter and and vid record it and you will call the police for each and every non emergency entry , then tell them your not going anywhere and if they dont like it too bad for them should they try to evict you because you wont hesitate to go see a landlord tenant atty. If you can look it up online it might be useful to know if your address is zoned for multi family.

You also might be doing future renters a favor if these people get their comeuppance in court. As absurd as their demands are its possible that they could even be ordered to pay your legal fees.

The bath/shower bit is the one that gets me the most...because its unbelievably absurd. The entering and inspecting without warning is the most illegal.

There is either one of two things going on here. Either they are simply so ignorant of how the law works that the believe they have the right to do these things and make these kinds of demands, or they are doing it on purpose. Its a pretty sweet deal for them if they can get tenants in for a couple of months and then drive them out and keep their security deposit...and rinse and repeat.

 

[FarmerJ]

You didnt mention it but when you spoke about the mail & LLs complaint about it , It appears your also sharing a mail box and address number which is why I have said to check if this property is zoned as a two family or if this unit is legal because it sure appears that it may not be because of the mail situation & utilities.

 

[jenn24]

UPDATE: They gave me an eviction notice today for taking a bath last night. They also complained that I used the bathroom and flushed the toilet after 10 PM.

These people are really unbelievable. After speaking with the previous tenant I do believe that part of the reason for their behavior is to drive people out and keep their security deposit.

It also appears that the unit is not legal, but I'm getting confirmation of that.

At this point I don't even have a response for their ridiculousness.

 

[BL]

UPDATE: They gave me an eviction notice today for taking a bath last night. They also complained that I used the bathroom and flushed the toilet after 10 PM.

These people are really unbelievable. After speaking with the previous tenant I do believe that part of the reason for their behavior is to drive people out and keep their security deposit.

It also appears that the unit is not legal, but I'm getting confirmation of that.

At this point I don't even have a response for their ridiculousness.

I would NOT respond at all.

If you get notice for court go and let them make fools of theirselves.

Also get the documents you may need to take to court.

Make sure your rent is paid up to date.

If they enter illegally call the law for tresspass .

If the come to personally harrass you ,call the law .

Don't play their stupid games or let them intimidate you.

Don't exept hand written mail by them in person .

Tell them to communicate with you by sending mail through the USPS with proper postage ONLY.

Keep all letters for court .