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Within my rights to withhold rent?

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Within my rights to withhold rent?

Postby IdiotWind » Sun Dec 26, 2021 4:31 pm

My building has been getting worse and worse and the Landlord and Property Manager are nearly useless (and in CA), my building has no super and the security has been increasingly unsafe. What started as a few squatters in empty units has now become a den of drug use and sex work, vandalism has begun as well. The few of us who live here have repeatedly told the property manager about these issues and in the last month little to nothing has been done, changed the front door lock which a police officer showed me a way to pick with a plastic knife and boarded up 1 window, many units are now being squatted and every morning a new part of our shared space is trashed or vandalized. Police are here daily but without a landlord or representative present they cannot enter units to investigate.

2 of the RS tenants have already filed paperwork to take the landlord to Housing Court over issues like broken intercom system and old plaster on the walls, I am not stabilized and with rents increasing rapidly in the city am weary of not having a lease renewal (I know that if you arent RS it is just a matter of time before I am out which is fine but I'd like to stay as long as possible) so I don't want to pick my battle on something like an intercom system which is easily fixed resulting in a dropped case.

So my question if anyone can answer is that am I within my rights to withhold rent under the warranty of habitability implied in my lease? If so what steps need to be taken?
- Notify the landlord/PM via certified mail that I plan to withhold rent if these repairs are not done by beginning of the month? (I have many emails with them dating back weeks about these issues so they are plenty aware)
- I should open a new savings account to put my monthly rent in?
- If and when these repairs are done I will then have to give them this back rent, correct?
- My landlord currently auto withdraws my rent, which they never gave me an option to mail a check so I would need to tell my bank to refuse payment to them as well.
- After something like this would it be viewed as retaliation to not offer me a new lease (exp 4/30)

thanks for any help/advice
Merry Christmas
IdiotWind
 
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Re: Within my rights to withhold rent?

Postby TenantNet » Sun Dec 26, 2021 5:35 pm

I'm assuming you are not rent stab.

What you describe are "bad conditions" and in our view could be covered by the warranty of habitability. But you need to be specific and document everything. You and others should create a diary (or do individual diaries) of all that occurs. Take photos, record audio (and phone calls), write down you version of events. All of that could end up in front of a judge, so the more you have, the better, Make sure it's accurate, not imagined. Call the police whenever something happens and get copies of police reports.

If there is no super, or no one on duty, report it to 311.

You don't have to be RS to go to housing court.

If not RS, then your lease controls. If no lease, you become month-to-month as long as the LL accept the rent. The LL must also follow strict notification rules before he can get you out. But yes, eventually he will.

Withholding rent is not permitted or prohibited by any law. But you can do it and if/when the LL takes you to court, you would assert your defense a) seeking repairs and b) seeking an abatement for lack of repairs. So document that a) things are broken and b) you asked for repairs and provided access if the LL asked for it.

If you want to be by the book, then make a list of what need to be repaired, or done (such as removing the squatters). Send it to the LL by cert. mail RRR demanding things change. You don't have to threaten to withhold rent, but you can do so.

No law says you have to put your rent in escrow, but the LL might ask for that as the court case proceeds. Just make sure you have it.

A court proceeding might give you an abatement. But also the COVID moratorium is still on until January 15. There are efforts to extend that.

Did you file for ERAP? The application period has officially ended, but there are efforts to reopen it. Also, file a hardship form if your income has been impacted from COVID.

I would stop the auto-withdrawal (which often has a 3% fee) and pay by mail. Send by Certificate of Mailing (not certified mail). Make copies of all checks.

You could claim retaliation if LL will not offer a new lease, but courts don't always buy into that. You might get six months on that, maybe.
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Re: Within my rights to withhold rent?

Postby IdiotWind » Tue Dec 28, 2021 5:52 pm

thanks for the reply.

Do you have any opinion on lease abandonment in this situation? I feel like they should allow me to break my lease early in lieu of all of this bullshit.
IdiotWind
 
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Re: Within my rights to withhold rent?

Postby TenantNet » Tue Dec 28, 2021 7:02 pm

Remember a lease is a contract, that means payment of rent for the duration of the term. They can't force you to actually stay there, but they can claim you owe the rent ... some of the time..

If you can document bad conditions and the LLs failure to fix things (including security), then that might be a viable defense to a claim by the LL for rent for the remainder of the term. That means real documentation, not rumor or speculation. You should also show that you notified the LL and the LL failed to do anything, or what they did was insufficient.

However, in 209 the law changed to require LL mitigation of their economic loss when a tenant breaks a lease early. That means they must make reasonable attempts to re-rent the place. Search the forum for "mitigation."
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Information from TenantNet is from experienced non-attorney tenant
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