retalitory "eviction"

[traci joy]

I was renting a room in a house (in California), my landlord also lived in that house. I had a month to month lease and 1 week before rent was due my landlord told me that rent had been raised from $400 a month to $600 a month and that the new amount was due in 7 days. I contacted a lawyer who said this was illegal and I wrote my landlord a letter telling her that she can't raise rent without 30 days notice. 5 days after I gave her this letter she gave me a paper entitled "eviction notice", however it was just a 30 days notice letter that she had typed up telling me to move out within 30 days. Since the landlord is pretty much clueless to all rental laws she didn't know the difference between an eviction notice and a 30 day notice. Can I take and legal action for being given a 30 day notice 5 days after I told my landlord she was doing something illegal?

 

[HomeGuru]

Sounds like a retaliation eviction to me.

 

[LL]

In California, retaliatory eviction is illegal only over complaints of tenantability of the premises, or for participating in a tenants organization.

LL is entitled to terminate you for being a trouble-maker who challenged her over her raise in rent. Of course she was not knowledgeable about her responsibility of notification in raising your rent, but she probably saw you as a threat to her ability to control her property.

As usual, whenever a lawyer enters the picture, things get worse. Your attorney gave you correct legal advice in telling you that she was wrong not to give you 30 days notice, but he was downright stupid if he advised you to write a letter saying that it is illegal and that she can't do it.

One way or another, the LL will get her raise in rent to which she is entitled. Now you will see that she will get it from the next tenant.

If you planned to move because of the raise in rent, then the 30 days notice was important to you. If not, you might have negotiated with LL about an appropriate starting date for the new rent schedule. If you are in Southern California where apartments are hard to find, you now need to look for a new apartment in a very tight market.

You said only that you were in California, not where in California. If you are under rent control, there may be other limitations regarding permissible rent levels and reasons for terminating a tenant.

 

[LL]

retalitory

P.S.

A new California state law scheduled to take effect January 1, 2001 provides that notice of rent increase must be at least 60 days, if the increase is more than 10 %.