Tenants in California have rights to safe, sanitary, and well-maintained homes. During a disaster like heavy rain or flooding, your home might be damaged and made partially or totally unusable. These rights apply to all tenants, even if you only have a verbal rental contract. Does a tenant have to pay rent when the home…
What can you do if the owner of your home - or their manager - is not respecting your rights around quiet enjoyment and entry to your home? Tenants in California have rights to protect themselves from blatant disrespect of privacy, especially when that disrespect is harassing, in retaliation for a tenant’s legal exercise of…
The apartment, house, or room that you rent is your home and you have the right to treat it as such. The law imposes specific obligations on landlords to avoid disrupting tenants’ use of their rentals in certain ways. In some cases, the law also requires landlords to remove or lessen disruptions. Read ahead to…
Most multi-unit rentals are protected by a law called the California Tenant Protection Act. Under the TPA, there are two cases in which a property owner can end your tenancy to remodel your home. - If they plan to do work which requires a permit from a government agency, such as major plumbing, electrical, or…
Riskier Methods to Get Repairs Made If methods for getting repairs made in Part 2 do not solve your issues, there are other rights you have available to address habitability problems. Before pursuing these options, we recommend exercising caution - especially if the repair issues are minor - and consulting an attorney. We also recommending…
Addressing Habitability Issues If you’re facing any of the habitability issues mentioned in Part 1, you have a right to request that your landlord fix them. Many people are concerned about facing rent increases or eviction after requesting repairs, which is understandable. As a reminder, it is illegal for your landlord to end your tenancy…
Even though the “eviction moratorium” in California expired on September 30, renters who have suffered economic impacts because of the Covid-19 pandemic still have some protections against eviction. The protections are different depending on when you were unable to pay your rent. There are 3 distinct periods of different protections AND there is still money…
Tenants in California are protected from discrimination in many areas. Anti-discrimination laws mean that a property owner or manager cannot treat one tenant differently from another based on the first tenant’s belonging to a protected category or group. Some examples of discrimination are: offering identical apartments at different prices based on tenants’ statuses as members…
What is Habitability? In California, landlords enter into something called an “implied warranty of habitability” when they sign a lease with you (Hinson v. Delis). This means they promise that the home you’re renting is safe, livable, and meets California’s requirements on buildings built for people to live in. Landlords are required to keep the…