Can Renter Deduct Repair Cost From Rent?

QUESTION: I live in Los Angeles and I have a question about locks. What type of door locks do landlords have to provide their renters?

My back door does not have a lock that will work from the outside with a key. The only two locks on the door are key-less ones that can only be locked from the inside by turning knobs. They render my back door to the garage useless.

Despite repeated requests, my landlord has shown no inclination to put on a deadbolt. Am I allowed to hire a locksmith and have a deadbolt installed, and deduct all attendant costs from my rent?

ANSWER: Renters are entitled to door locks that lock from both the inside and outside. If after repeated requests the landlord is unwilling to provide you with such locks, under state law you can provide your own. While the habitability code doesn’t specifically list locking doors as a condition of habitability, a court case extends that protection to renters.

When an apartment is uninhabitable, Civil Code Section 1942 says that if the landlord refuses to make the premises habitable “within a reasonable time,” the tenant may do so. You must first give the landlord notice of your intention to “repair and deduct” (repair the problem and deduct the money from the rent).

According to the code, “ . . . if the tenant acts to repair and deduct after the 30th day following notice, he is presumed to have acted after a reasonable time.”

Even though the code says, and most courts have ruled, that 30 days is not always reasonable notice for correcting all problems--sometimes it’s 3 days, particularly for those problems that the court classifies as emergencies--I would still give the owner that much time to fix or replace the lock.

I always recommend using written notices in owner-renter relationships, even though the code doesn’t always require them, and doesn’t in this instance. Since 90% of all evictions are commenced for non-payment of rent, that’s particularly helpful when you will be spending the owner’s rent money for something other than the rent.

For your information, the repair-and-deduct remedy is available to renters twice in any 12-month period. The amount of any repair-and-deduct cannot exceed one month’s rent.

Improvements Are Not Required by Law

Q: We have lived in the same apartment in the Pico-Robertson area of Los Angeles for the past 17 years. In all that time, the landlord has never improved the interior of our apartment unit.

We finally replaced the carpets and drapes at our own expense, but this seems unfair. Are we entitled to any of the following improvements after any specific time of occupancy: inside painting; new carpets, drapes or linoleum, new window screens, a new peephole or a new air-conditioner unit?

A: There is no state or L.A. city law requiring apartment owners to supply you with any of the above-listed amenities for your apartment. There are health and safety laws about things like missing or torn window screens, which could allow vermin infestation, or torn carpeting, which could represent a trip-and-fall hazard.

But even in these situations, the owner could, at his option, repair rather than replace the window screens or carpeting.

However, saving dollars like that doesn’t make a lot of sense for most rental owners in the current rental market, where, even after the Northridge earthquake, there are still a significant number of vacancies and stiff competition for renters.

If you’ve repeatedly requested improvements like those you describe in your letter and the owner hasn’t responded--and if they are important to you--now may be a good time to make a change.

Problems Are Best Avoided at the Start

Q: After searching for several weeks, I finally found an almost perfect apartment in Hollywood. There are a few problems, though, and I wonder if I can insist that the landlord fix them.

I have friends living in the building who warned me that the owners are unpleasant and generally put off making repairs.

The problems are:

1--The wooden stairs leading to the second-floor apartment wobble and should be attached to the wall for added strength.

2--The garage door is too heavy and should be replaced.

3--The two-prong electrical outlets should be converted to three-prong outlets.

4--The stairwell lamp doesn’t work and should be repaired because it leaves the entryway to the apartment dark.

Can I compel the owner to correct these problems before moving in? I would really appreciate your advice.

A: My advice to you is not to rent the apartment under the circumstances you describe, unless you can live with the inconveniences you outline in your letter.

You may be able to move in and subsequently get a city or county agency, or agencies, to cite the owner to repair some of these problems. For instance, if the stairs are unsafe, they would have to be repaired. But I can’t think of a worse way to begin a landlord-tenant relationship. If I were you, I would seek an apartment elsewhere if I couldn’t persuade the owner to make the repairs before I moved into the apartment.