Daytime Noise Troubles Night Worker
QUESTION: My next door neighbor has several children, and they are very noisy during the day. They scream, cry, run up and down the stairs, and bounce their basketball under our windows. I have asked their parents and the manager to stop the noise, but I was told that city ordinances only require quiet after 10 p.m., and the family complies with that ordinance. However, I work at night, and sleep during the day. Isn’t the owner obligated to protect my quiet enjoyment of the rental unit?
ANSWER: The “quiet enjoyment” of your apartment is a legal metaphor, which does not refer to the absence of noise, but to the right a tenant has to enjoy her home free from unjustified interference by the landlord, as does a homeowner. However, homeowners also might have to endure noise from next door neighbors.
Although you may find the noise from your neighbors distressing, the question is whether a reasonable person would suffer substantial emotional distress by listening to children play. There are some inconveniences and annoyances to be expected from the reasonable use of property by neighbors, be they tenants or owners, particularly in the close living of a city or suburban residential neighborhood.
People are entitled to the ordinary and normal use of their residence, and, as long as the activity of your neighbors is not unlawful or willfully directed at you with the intent to annoy you, you will have to find ways to cope with the noise. You may try to talk with the parents and ask that the children try to make less noise; you may also want to contact your local mediation program and ask for a neighborhood mediation.
Some other ways of diminishing noise levels are switching your bedroom to another room, if possible, rearranging the furniture and using earplugs or white noise machines. Unfortunately, there is no perfect solution, so we all must find ways to live together.
Security Deposit Must Be Returned in 14 Days
Q: My rental agreement states that my security deposit will be returned to me within six weeks after I move out. Now that I have moved out, I would like to get it back sooner, but the manager tells me that is impossible because the property owner lives out of state and it takes him much longer to review all the accounts and issue the refund check. Am I forced to wait a full six weeks, as stated in the rental agreement?
A: The clause in your rental agreement that calls for a refund in six weeks is not valid, because under California Civil Code Section 1950.5 the landlord must send the refund, or an explanation of any amount withheld, within 14 calendar days.
You are further protected by Section 1953, which says that you may not relinquish your rights under Section 1950.5. That means that even if you signed an agreement that allows for six weeks, you still have the right to a 14-day refund. The fact that two weeks might be too short for a landlord who lives out of state is irrelevant. By doing business in California, the owner must provide for an accounting system that respects state laws.
Call the manager and demand that he make arrangements to issue your refund, or ask your local tenant/landlord program to assist you. If you get no satisfaction, file a claim in Small Claims Court. If you convince the judge that the owner has acted in bad faith, you may be awarded punitive damages up to $200 and 2% monthly interest from the day you moved out, in addition to your refund.
Tenant Not Neutral but Neither Is Carpet
Q: I signed a one-year rental agreement after the manager promised to install new carpets. He asked us our color preference, and agreed with us that mauve is a nice color, but said that, in a rental unit, it would be more practical to use a neutral tone. We signed the contract, even though it did not specifically mention our choice of carpet color.
When we moved in, we discovered that the new carpets are in a shade of leprechaun green, and we are distraught because the carpets clash with our new furniture. Can we move out despite our lease, and ask the manager to pay for our moving expenses?
A: Your one-year lease makes you responsible for paying the rent for a year, or at least until a new tenant takes over the payments. The conditions that would allow you to breach it are a delicate legal matter. State law requires that the unit be habitable, which does not mandate carpeted floors, much less that the carpets go with your furniture.
You should speak with your manager, and see if some reasonable accommodation can be made; perhaps he may be willing to allow you to move into another unit with carpets more to your liking. In any case, you should not unilaterally terminate your lease unless you are willing to assume the costs you may incur.
This column is prepared by Project Sentinel, a rental housing mediation service in Sunnyvale, Calif. Questions may be sent to 582-B Dunholme Way, Sunnyvale, Calif. 94087, but cannot be answered individually. For help in the Los Angeles area, call the Metro Harbor Fair Housing Council at (213) 539-6191 or the Westside Fair Housing Council at (310) 475-9671.
