Landlord Puts Off Restoring Her Porch Light
QUESTION: I am 71 and live alone. My landlord stuccoed the San Pedro duplex where I have lived since last summer. He has had one excuse after another for not restoring the porch light. It’s very dark at night, and I am afraid to answer the door when I can’t see who it is. What can I do to get the landlord to get the porch light working?
ANSWER: Proper lighting is more than just a convenience. As you indicate in your letter, it’s a safety issue as well. If your repeated efforts to get the landlord to fix the porch light have been unsuccessful, you can report him to the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety at (213) 485-7091.
You might want to let the owner know that you are going to report him and get him cited if he refuses to cooperate. You should also inform him that if a crime or accident occurs because of the lack of lighting, which he knows about, he could be the target of a major lawsuit. He should get the light fixed for his own peace of mind, if for no other reason.
Evicted Tenant Left Her Personal Property
Q: I am writing on behalf of my wife and mother-in-law, who co-own a rental home in Los Angeles. After five months of non-payment of rent by the elderly tenant who lived there, they were finally able to evict her.
While we all felt sorry for her, paying all of the mortgage out of their own pockets on this rental home was becoming financially difficult.
Here’s the problem. The former tenant has not made any attempt to remove her personal belongings from the home since her eviction. Unfortunately, the former tenant may also be senile, and she has no relatives in California. She’s staying in the psychiatric ward of the county hospital.
The owners have phoned and written her many times, asking her to remove her belongings but nothing has happened.
Now, they must do something. Storing the belongings would be too expensive. Can they legally sell her belongings and deduct her back rent from the proceeds and give her the difference? If not, what legal action can they take?
A: Los Angeles County’s “Public Guardian” is charged with caring for the property of those with severe mental problems. You may contact him at (213) 974-0511. Otherwise, the state provides property owners with methods for disposing of abandoned personal property.
After an eviction such as you describe, state law requires you to notify, in writing, the person or persons whose property you intend to dispose of. You needn’t establish whether or not the property is abandoned, as is sometimes the case. It is clearly abandoned after an eviction.
Your written notice must give the respondent at least 15 days to claim the property if served personally, or 18 days if mailed. It may also require her to pay the reasonable cost of storage of the property.
If the total value of the property is under $300, you may dispose of it in any way you see fit if the former tenant doesn’t claim it in the prescribed time.
If your former tenant doesn’t claim the property in the prescribed time, and it’s worth more than $300, here’s what happens, according to California Civil Code Section 1988:
“If you fail to reclaim the property, it will be sold at a public sale after notice of the sale has been given by publication. You have the right to bid on the property at this sale. After the property is sold and the cost of storage, advertising and sale is deducted, the remaining money will be paid over to the county. You may claim the remaining money at anytime within one year after the county received the money.”
You must carefully inventory the property, regardless of worth, for your public sale. You must also publish, in any newspaper of general circulation, a notice of the upcoming sale.
After the sale, as noted above, you can keep only the costs associated with the storage and sale of the property. There is no provision in the code authorizing you to keep any part of the proceeds of the sale for unpaid rent. That issue should have been addressed during the eviction action.
Landlords’ Telephone Obligation Defined
Q: I live in Los Angeles, and I was shocked to read your Feb. 18 response to the question “Tenant Wants Owner to Repair Phone Jacks.” You stated: “The reason the phone companies offer the insurance to renters is because renters are responsible for fixing it.” In fact, phone companies offer the insurance to persons ordering phone service, whether they be homeowners, lessees or sub-lessees.
Please advise me and your readers as to the legal authority and facts upon which you based your answer.
A: Prepare to be further shocked. According to Jim Fleck, director of research for Los Angeles’ Rent Stabilization Division, the landlord is not responsible for telephone wiring or jack repairs, except in very limited circumstances.
For instance, if the landlord provides telephone service (few do), the responsibility for its repair may be his. Similarly, if the rental agreement makes some kind of provision for the landlord to make such repairs or maintain the phone system, then the repair of the jacks or wiring may also be the landlord’s.
Absent a situation like those, maintaining the phone wiring and jacks is the responsibility of the tenant.
“If the tenant doesn’t pay the phone bill, it gets disconnected,” Fleck noted. “The landlord doesn’t have to pay to reconnect the phone. He also doesn’t have to pay to fix it when it breaks.”
According to Marina del Rey real estate attorney Duane Hall, “Telephones are amenities like television sets. Asking a landlord to fix the phone system is like asking him to fix your television set.”
Your letter states: “Phone companies offer the insurance to persons ordering phone service, whether they be homeowners, lessees or sub-lessees.” Absent from that list is “lessors.”
Postema is the editor of Apartment Age Magazine, a publication of the Apartment Assn. of Greater Los Angeles, an apartment owners’ service group. Mail your questions on any aspect of apartment living to “Rentformation , “ Apartment Assn. of Greater Los Angeles, 621 S. Westmoreland Ave., Los Angeles 90005-3995.
