What are my rights when my landlord is in default

[mb1065]

I recently discovered that my landlord has allowed the house in which I'm renting go into default. My husband and I moved in on April 15th which at that time the landlord was already behind on his mortgage. He also has failed to repair the heat and neglegted the pool, which resulted in us hiring our own pool service. He approved us hiring the pool service, but now he is not payring the bills. We have experienced a great deal of phone calls, people knocking on our door trying to buy the house and as of lately our garbage is now being ransacked. (unsure if this is due to the default, but none the less agrivating) We beleive that because of the landlord's situation we are not living in quiet and privacy. My question is whether or not we should continue to pay the rent. I've heard conflicting answers regarding this and I need a definate answer as to what our rights are. We're living in Los Angeles county.

Please help if you have any answers!

As a former landlord I can tell you that you can't hold the rent for any of this. As for the heat and pool: if they were included in the rental contract then you can take him to small claims court.

My suggestion? It's time to move!

[msgny]

That is also my understanding.