My question involves landlord-tenant law in the State of: California
Thank you for looking at my thread. I will do my best to summarize this strange situation that I am in as briefly as possible.
My boyfriend and I moved into a rental house in August and moved out Sept. 20 due for many reasons, including unlivable conditions and unforeseen noise (neighbors blasted fireworks every night at midnight for two weeks in a row). I paid $950 rent, all utilities, and provided a $700 deposit. The landlord is a private party and obviously was trying to avoid doing things the right way. She did not create a lease; I had to request a month-to-month one and she did not sign it for two weeks.
The house had mold, a rotting and falling carport, broken tiles, holes with exposed wires in the interior and exterior, an illegally converted bedroom (used to be a garage), no AC of any kind, loose and cracked tiles, random cords hanging out of kitchen cabinets going through the wall, exposed holes in ceiling where light fixtures should have been and a collapsed patio with wood, glass and metal pieces in the backyard that took up half the yard. I have pictures to prove all of this. The landlord said that she had a contractor coming out to fix these things the weekend before I was supposed to move in. Unfortunately, no one came and we were stuck since we had already paid her.
My boyfriend has high-functioning autism (I mention this because she is claiming that his 'mental disability' caused him to 'destroy' her house) and asked for permission to paint, fix holes, seal cracks and remove a rotting cabinet in the converted bedroom. She said yes. She also asked him to remove the old carpet because she was having someone install new carpet. He did this for free, and no one came for 2 1/2 weeks. When they did come, it was her and her two sons googling "How to install carpet" and they took 10 hours for three days straight, forced us to move all of our belongings out of the bedroom into the tiny living room. On the last day she was there, she stole her own blinds that she had given us permission to temporarily remove because they had holes in them and were stained with oil and what appeared to be food chunks. Now she is charging us for brand new blinds.
Here's the problem: She kept showing up each week inviting herself into the house. She used our mailing address for her bills and legal letters instead of her real mailing address and then got angry at me for not calling her each time she received an important letter. The landlord asked my boyfriend to stop the work he was doing halfway through and said that she would prefer to pay a professional to finish and take it out of our deposit.
On the day of move out, she did not show up, despite me asking for a pre-move out inspection. Instead, she sent her sister while I was gone who walked in with a cigarette and harassed my boyfriend, knowing he has a developmental disability. She threatened him and broke the kitchen faucet in half right in front of him (it was jerry rigged by landlord), claiming that he had to pay for a new sink. She also demanded our new address, which he refused. She ended up taking our new house keys from him, which have the address printed on, and rudely told him "I know where you live now; you WILL pay for the sink." This was clearly a threat, and considering our landlord's sons are gang affiliated (she told me during our last week there trying to scare me), I am honestly scared.
Now, 20 days later, the landlord is asking for more money than my deposit. She said that she is sending me "paperwork", not sure what. She did not complete a pre-move out inspection nor did she send me an itemized list of damages. The only witness that we have who heard her tell my boyfriend that he could do repairs is my sister. Now of course, the landlord is denying giving him permission to do anything. We suffered with massive bug bites all over our body while living here, no air conditioning, no screen door on sliding glass door, no carpet for half a month (walked on concrete), and daily flooding of the kitchen caused by her failure to fix the pipes under the sink. Not to mention the unuseable backyard because it was full of hazardous, broken materials, broken dishwasher, and broken oven.
I understand that we were idiots for giving her the rent money before having proof that she did the necessary repairs. I also understand that my boyfriend should NOT have offered nor done ANY work on that house, especially without written permission. He had to seal up the holes asap though because we caught bugs and rodents coming in. This was our first time renting a house from a private party and we learned a hard lesson. I'm just not sure what I can do to protect us from this lady, who is calling me and harassing me on a daily basis and claims that she will take me to court over damages.
Thank you for looking at my thread. I will do my best to summarize this strange situation that I am in as briefly as possible.
My boyfriend and I moved into a rental house in August and moved out Sept. 20 due for many reasons, including unlivable conditions and unforeseen noise (neighbors blasted fireworks every night at midnight for two weeks in a row). I paid $950 rent, all utilities, and provided a $700 deposit. The landlord is a private party and obviously was trying to avoid doing things the right way. She did not create a lease; I had to request a month-to-month one and she did not sign it for two weeks.
The house had mold, a rotting and falling carport, broken tiles, holes with exposed wires in the interior and exterior, an illegally converted bedroom (used to be a garage), no AC of any kind, loose and cracked tiles, random cords hanging out of kitchen cabinets going through the wall, exposed holes in ceiling where light fixtures should have been and a collapsed patio with wood, glass and metal pieces in the backyard that took up half the yard. I have pictures to prove all of this. The landlord said that she had a contractor coming out to fix these things the weekend before I was supposed to move in. Unfortunately, no one came and we were stuck since we had already paid her.
My boyfriend has high-functioning autism (I mention this because she is claiming that his 'mental disability' caused him to 'destroy' her house) and asked for permission to paint, fix holes, seal cracks and remove a rotting cabinet in the converted bedroom. She said yes. She also asked him to remove the old carpet because she was having someone install new carpet. He did this for free, and no one came for 2 1/2 weeks. When they did come, it was her and her two sons googling "How to install carpet" and they took 10 hours for three days straight, forced us to move all of our belongings out of the bedroom into the tiny living room. On the last day she was there, she stole her own blinds that she had given us permission to temporarily remove because they had holes in them and were stained with oil and what appeared to be food chunks. Now she is charging us for brand new blinds.
Here's the problem: She kept showing up each week inviting herself into the house. She used our mailing address for her bills and legal letters instead of her real mailing address and then got angry at me for not calling her each time she received an important letter. The landlord asked my boyfriend to stop the work he was doing halfway through and said that she would prefer to pay a professional to finish and take it out of our deposit.
On the day of move out, she did not show up, despite me asking for a pre-move out inspection. Instead, she sent her sister while I was gone who walked in with a cigarette and harassed my boyfriend, knowing he has a developmental disability. She threatened him and broke the kitchen faucet in half right in front of him (it was jerry rigged by landlord), claiming that he had to pay for a new sink. She also demanded our new address, which he refused. She ended up taking our new house keys from him, which have the address printed on, and rudely told him "I know where you live now; you WILL pay for the sink." This was clearly a threat, and considering our landlord's sons are gang affiliated (she told me during our last week there trying to scare me), I am honestly scared.
Now, 20 days later, the landlord is asking for more money than my deposit. She said that she is sending me "paperwork", not sure what. She did not complete a pre-move out inspection nor did she send me an itemized list of damages. The only witness that we have who heard her tell my boyfriend that he could do repairs is my sister. Now of course, the landlord is denying giving him permission to do anything. We suffered with massive bug bites all over our body while living here, no air conditioning, no screen door on sliding glass door, no carpet for half a month (walked on concrete), and daily flooding of the kitchen caused by her failure to fix the pipes under the sink. Not to mention the unuseable backyard because it was full of hazardous, broken materials, broken dishwasher, and broken oven.
I understand that we were idiots for giving her the rent money before having proof that she did the necessary repairs. I also understand that my boyfriend should NOT have offered nor done ANY work on that house, especially without written permission. He had to seal up the holes asap though because we caught bugs and rodents coming in. This was our first time renting a house from a private party and we learned a hard lesson. I'm just not sure what I can do to protect us from this lady, who is calling me and harassing me on a daily basis and claims that she will take me to court over damages.
Security Deposits: Claim for Damages in Excess of the Security Deposit
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