Lease Does Not Permit Change of Mind
QUESTION: I live in Seal Beach and I have a problem with some prospective tenants. Eleven days before they were supposed to move into my rental, I signed a one-year lease with them. At that point, I took the property off of the market.
Two days after signing the lease they changed their minds, maintaining that they have three days to do so. I disagree. I believe that the three days they’re talking about is the law for “conditional sales contracts,” not leasing contracts.
I am trying to mitigate the damages by advertising, but what if I can’t rent the property before the day the lease was to have started with them. Are they liable and for how much?
ANSWER: A deal isn’t always a deal, but a lease is usually binding. You are correct in your belief that conditional sales contract law, which gives you a few days to think over that aluminum siding purchase, for instance, does not apply to leases. It applies to some sales.
Your lease is effective from its inception to its conclusion, barring an escape clause that may be written into it, and damages could include the entire year’s rent, among other things.
Ideally, you will rerent the unit even before the move-in date you have established in the lease. If you do, the damages are greatly mitigated. Then they include no lost rent, assuming that the new tenants move in on or before the original move-in date at that same rent.
Damages could still include leasing fees, advertising costs and related expenses.
Since both of you benefit from early rerental of the unit (you get rent-paying tenants and your tenants get relief from the lease), you will want to work together toward your common goal. If the tenants bring you prospective renters, roll out the red carpet.
Unroll the rug even if these prospective renters are unlikely candidates because you have motivated sales representatives in the field, your “almost-tenants,” and you want to keep them there. Don’t do anything to discourage their efforts.
If you can’t rerent the unit before the start-date of the lease, and you are making “good-faith” efforts to do so, the lease signers are liable for the unpaid rent until the place is rented. To get such rent, however, you may have to sue them in small claims court for up to $5,000 and municipal court thereafter. That, of course, is your least pleasant, and last, option.
Charge for Gas Is More Than He Uses
Q: When we moved into one unit of a duplex in 1978, our rental agreement said that gas and water were to be included in the rent.
Two years later, the property was sold. The new landlady abided by the agreement until seven years ago, at which time she started adding 2% a year to the rent, 1% for water.
One year later, she found out that she couldn’t charge anything for the water, so she refunded 1% of a year’s rent, but she didn’t reduce the future rent by the 1%. When I protested that I’d always be paying 1% too much rent, I got a three-day notice to pay the rent or move out, so I dropped the matter.
It doesn’t seem fair to me that a landlord can add 1% to the rent every year for the gas. That’s 7% over seven years and it seems to me that it greatly exceeds our share of the gas bill. Is that the way Los Angeles Rent Stabilization law works? Can the landlady keep abiding by the 1% to my rent?
A: According to Ralph Esparza, director, Los Angeles Rent Stabilization Division (RSD), you probably won’t be fuming over the 1% annual gas rent increase for long.
“The rent control law is undergoing its four-year review, last conducted in 1988, and that’s probably one of the many things we’ll be looking at,” Esparza said.
“For instance, our study of the gas increases from 1979-1992 shows that the average annual rent increase resulting from the 1% is $4.40 per month and the average increase to the owner for gas is $.72. That may very well change.”
Esparza said that the RSD has hired a consultant who will recommend an array of contemporary issues for RSD to take to the Los Angeles City Council for review.
To cut the alleged 1% rent overcharge down to size, Esparza recommended that you file a complaint with the RSD.
“We’ll investigate the matter and look at a variety of evidence including things like the original lease or rental agreement and any canceled checks that he may have,” Esparza said. “Of course, we’ll talk to the owner too.”
Who Can Check Out Prospective Tenants?
Q: I rent half of my duplex out to tenants. Now, I need new tenants and I’m wondering how to go about checking their credit and ability to pay the rent. Do you have any suggestions for me?
A: One of the many services that the Apartment Assn. of Greater Los Angeles (AAGLA) provides its members is tenant screening (credit history, telecredit and eviction judgments. Membership and tenant-screening fees are nominal.
For membership information phone (213) 384-4131 or write to AAGLA, 621 S. Westmoreland Ave., Los Angeles, Calif. 90005-3995.
Postema is the editor of Apartment Age Magazine, a publication of AAGLA, an apartment owners’ service group. Mail your questions on any aspect of apartment living to Apartment Life at AAGLA.
