QUESTION
Can we withhold rent until the repairs are made?
Asked on Apr 03rd, 2017 on Landlord and Tenant Law - California
More details to this question:
My wife and I married and rented our first apartment 12 months ago. Immediately, we noticed water on the floor at the base of our shower. We used towels to clean it up and notified the management office the next day. After the landlord having multiple contractors look at the problem, it was determined that the seal at the bottom of the shower door was allowing water to freely flow out onto the floor. When they removed the shower door, to replace it, there was black mold on the threshold, and adjacent walls of the shower. This was left exposed for over a month. The mold was embedded in the wood and never removed, but instead pained over. They put a new shower door on, however, the door still leaks all over the floor, and now mold is growing back on the threshold. We are a second-floor unit, and the neighbor below us has reported that the ceiling has water damage below our shower. My wife and I feel that they have had more than adequate time to fix this problem, however nothing has been done and 12 months later, we still don't have a properly functioning shower. We still have 3 months left on our lease or we would have already left. It is also worth noting, that not long after moving in, both my wife and I got violently ill, and I had to be taken to the emergency room after being found unconscious on the bathroom floor. We suspect that the mold may have been a factor in this.
1 ANSWER
In California, after giving the landlord a reasonable period of time to repair a defect, a tenant can deduct up to one month's rent they actually spend to repair a defect. So certainly you can do so, but is it worth while to actually spend your own money [which you get back from a reduction of the rental payment] when you are not going to live there more than 3 months? I would go to the owner and point out what happened [tell him about getting sick but say you do not know the cause so you do not appear greedy] and demand that within one week he has a licensed contractor there to start repairs and finish within a reasonable period of time. If you feel the problem is a safety hazard, tell the owner that you consider it such and that he has breached the contract for providing a safe place to live and his behavior has resulted in a "constructive eviction" of you so the term of time to end the lease has ended and you will have to report the problem to the local appropriate agency [do not make it sound like you want him to pay you not to report it, as that might be considered blackmail]. Start looking now for a new place to rent, but be aware that a new landlord will want to know why you left your prior rental and will not want a tenant who might cause problems in the future. Your current landlord also will probably try to hold back on your security deposit. The best thing is to approach your current landlord in a non-accusatory, polite manner and try to work out a deal that he will give you a good reference [many landlords do not check with the prior landlord], let you leave as soon as you want after at least a week or two notice, and will return your entire security deposit and reduce your current rent because you can not use the shower area.
Answered on Jun 26th, 2017 at 7:52 AM