Tenant Alters Lock, Won’t Give Up Key

QUESTION: My wife and I manage a 60-unit apartment building in North Hollywood(rent controlled). As in most such management situations, we have keys to the apartments.

Most of the tenants are very reasonable about granting us access for repairs. A few ask for 24-hour notice before entry. There is one tenant, however, who has installed his own locks and refuses to give us any keys, even for emergencies.

I have been told that the tenant would be liable for any expenses incurred for damages caused by us having to break into the apartment in the case of emergency. I also understand that the tenant would be liable for damages to neighboring apartments resulting from the emergency and subsequent delay in being able to enter his unit.

In such a case, I guess we would have to take the tenant to small claims court to collect damages. That doesn’t seem to me to be a very satisfactory solution to this potential problem. The lease says, “Lessor shall have the right by himself or with others to enter the premises in the manner provided by California Civil Code Section 1954.”

How can we get a key to the apartment in order to avoid all these problems? If we can’t get a key, how else can we resolve or mitigate this uncomfortable situation.

ANSWER: Your understanding and interpretation of the civil code is excellent and quite correct. While the code gives you the right to enter, it does not require the tenant to provide you with keys to the apartment. Despite that, there may be an answer to your problem.

You can solve the problem if your lease contains language like the following, “Except as may be provided by law, no repairs, decorations or alterations shall be done without Owner’s prior written consent.”

Since changing and rekeying of locks are alterations prohibited by the lease, you can require the tenant to either change the locks back to their original state or provide you with keys with a 3-Day Notice To Perform Covenant or Quit.

This is also true under the Los Angeles rent control ordinance. Section 151.09A of the Los Angeles Municipal Code (evictions) says you can evict the tenant if, “2. The tenant has violated a lawful obligation or covenant of the tenancy, other than the obligation to surrender possession upon proper notice, and has failed to cure such violation after having received written notice thereof from the landlord.”

Subsection 6 of the same section also gives you the right to evict if, “The tenant has refused the landlord reasonable access to the unit for the purpose of making repairs of improvements, or for the purpose of inspection as permitted or required by the lease or by law, or for the purpose of showing the unit to any prospective purchaser or mortgagee.”

Thus, while there is no law requiring tenants to supply you with keys to their apartments, there are protections, eviction, if you don’t get a key or are denied reasonable access.

Now, let’s assume that you don’t have any alteration language in your lease and the tenant allows you reasonable access to his unit, but an emergency situation arises and you have to break into the unit to resolve the crisis. What approaches are available to you for recovering damages that arise because you don’t have a key to the apartment?

As you said in your letter, you can sue the tenant in small claims court, unless the damages resulting from your lack of a key exceed $5,000. In that case you would sue in Municipal or Superior Court. Otherwise, you could deduct the damages from the tenant’s security deposit.

Apartment Group Offers Owner Link

Q: I am getting ready to close escrow on a four-unit apartment complex in the city of Corona, which is in Riverside County. If there is one, could you please inform me how to contact the local apartment association in that area?

A: The most local apartment association in your area of which I am aware is called the Apartment Rental Owners (Assn.) (ARO). It is located in Upland at 545 N. Mountain Ave., Suite 211, 91786. The phone number there is (714) 981-3353.

Office hours at ARO are 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m., Monday-Friday, closed from 12-1 p.m. for lunch. You may talk to anyone on staff for membership information.