Landlord Retaliation Victim

I moved in with a friend who had already been living in an apartment for a
little over a year. Her ex-roomate and I both had to pay $100 each to change the lease. Within the first month they began to do re-roofing which got all over my bed. I called to report the mess and put in a work order to have the 2 foot crack in my bedroom ceiling fixed. Two days later we received a 60 day notice to terminate our month to month lease. We moved out after 55 days were never given a specific reason for terminating our lease.

They never repaired the ceiling and only gave us $35 back out of the $1195. They deducted $710.28 for carpet replacement (in a small 2 bedroom with minimal stains), and $290.04 for a complete paint job (there was no unreasonable wear). I noticed they had multiple complaints online from other previous tenants with similar situations. So I decided I was not going to let them make me another one of their victims. I sent a letter asking for further documentation for deductions (in accordance with California Civil Code 1950.5). But I am having a hard time finding anything about them terminating our lease under such circumstances (can only only find info on evictions). I would really appreciate any help finding sources to take them to small claims court.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,
Victim No More

Did you have a term lease or a month to month rental agreement? They are different. The term lease states specific beginning and ending dates. The m2m merely states that rent is due on the xx day of each month. If you have a m2m rental agreement, no reason is needed to terminate the agreement. The LL does not have to state any reason at all.

Read CA civil code 1942.5 for more info on retaliation in your state. But it appears that retaliation only applies in CA when you are *evicted* within 6 months of a complaint. You were not evicted (a court action), only not renewed on your m2m agreement. They are not interchangable.

The deposit is different altogether. Write a chalenge letter to the LL to challenge each item on that deposit statement one by one. Write why you do not owe that charge or why the fee is not correct (and show how it should be calculated). For the carpet, it should be depreciated according the the age of the carpet at move out. If ruined, you should only be charged a fraction of the full cost. Search old posts for discussions of depreciation. Send the letter certified, RRR, and keep a copy. If the LL does not reply, sue in small claims court.

A unit should not require repainting after only a year of occupancy. Normally a unit's paint can last about 3 years before repainting is required. IF the unit needed painting after a year of living there, yu can be charges a portion of it.

Since I did not rent the apt. from the beginning and just moved in, I do not know if it had a new carpet or if it had only been cleaned since the last tenant and neither does my roommate. My roommate is pretty sure that when she moved in the paint was new. The deductions were as listed but we don't know what it means: 42/60 carpet replacement 1014.70, we were charged for 710.28. 12/30 complete paint job 725.00, we were charged for 290.04. Can anyone help to clarify?

Thanks.

The carpet and paint were depreciated. Those notations (42/60) are saying that there were 42 months left on the carpet and that the LL depreciated the carpet over a 5 yr schedule (60 months). That means the carpet was 18 months old. You were charged with 70% of the carpet costs. The same with the paint notation 12/30 (there was 12 months of life left in the paint and it is depreciated over a 30 months schedule). The paint was 18 months old as well. The total cost of each item was divided by the number of month depreciated, them multipplied by the number of months of life left. This is a correct way to calulate the costs of damaged items.

Did you attempt to clean the carpet when you left to remove the stains? Looks like they thought the carpet was beyond cleaning.