Contract Will Determine When Family Must Vacate
QUESTION: My family and I live in a two-bedroom rental home in Los Angeles County. It had a “for sale” sign on it shortly after the owners notified us that it was going on the market. Last month a “sold” sign went up on the property.
We have not received a notice of any kind from the owner, and when I ask him about the house now, he says he has no information about it. What are my rights in this situation?
ANSWER: Your rights depend on your rental contract. If it is a month-to-month rental agreement, the owner can give you a 30-day notice to move out. You may be served with the notice at any time during the month.
If you have a lease agreement, generally for one year, you can be required to move out when it expires.
Fixed-term leases must be in writing, unlike month-to-month agreements, which can be oral.
If you started out your tenancy on a lease that expired and was not renewed, under California law your tenancy automatically converted to a month-to-month agreement.
Often when people buy homes, they want to move into them right away. If you have a lease with several months left on it and a new owner wants to move in quickly, you have some bargaining power.
Landlord Has the Right to Charge for Lockouts
Q: I live in an apartment complex in Burbank. I accidentally locked myself out of my apartment one day at about 7:20 p.m. I went to the landlord’s apartment for help and she opened the door, but she told me that since it was 7 p.m., she would charge me a $25 fee. I subsequently got a bill for $25, so I checked my rental agreement. It does not state any lockout fees or time frames. I don’t think this is right. Can she charge me this?
A: According to Trevor Grimm, general counsel of the Apartment Assn. of Greater Los Angeles, there is no law requiring the owner to unlock the apartment for you or prohibiting him or her from charging you a reasonable fee for services. After she turned over possession of the apartment to you, it became your responsibility. Since she has no right to enter your apartment, except in limited cases (and this is not one of them), she has no obligation to enter either.
The key to this question is what was said on the night of the lockout. You say in your letter that she told you she would charge you a $25 fee.
Since you probably realized that a locksmith would cost considerably more than that, particularly since it was after normal business hours, you probably agreed at the time to pay the fee, setting up a valid oral contract.
If I were you, I would pay the $25 and have an extra key made. (If you already have complained to the landlord, the next time she may tell you to call a locksmith.)
‘Preparation Charge’ Is Not a Legal Fee
Q: When we moved into our South Pasadena apartment four years ago, we were required to pay a $100 “non-refundable preparation charge” to move in. The apartment manager said she charges this fee to all new tenants to clean each apartment after the previous tenant. Is this legal?
A: No. The manager cannot assess a preparation charge to you to move into the apartment. She can require a refundable security deposit of you to pay for cleaning if, when you move out, you don’t leave the apartment as clean as or cleaner than when you moved in.
If the manager must have the apartment cleaned to get it to that level after your vacancy, she can charge you the actual amount that it costs her to clean it, which could be more than $100. If she doesn’t pay anything for cleaning, she can’t charge anything for it.
Under no circumstances can apartment owners or managers charge you “non-refundable fees” for cleaning or anything else. For her own good, you may want to inform her of the law in a nonconfrontational manner. You might want to let her know that if a tenant sues her in Small Claims Court, she could be liable for up to $600 in damages if a judge determines that she withheld a portion of your security deposit “in bad faith.”
A Gopher Plant Will Solve Rodent Problem
In the Sept. 6 Apartment Life column, we ran a question titled “Are Gopher Holes Owner’s Responsibility?” We asked readers for their help in solving this gopher infestation problem, and a South Pasadena reader wrote:
“Here is your answer. It’s a plant, called Euphorbia lathyris (also known as Gopher Plant), and you grow it from seed. It really works to keep them away and it’s better than trapping.
“We used to watch the critters from our dining room window as they pushed up dirt and poked their heads out to look around, but since we planted it, we haven’t seen one.”
Postema is the editor of Apartment Age magazine, a publication of AAGLA, an apartment owners’ service group, and manager of public affairs for the California Apartment Law Information Foundation, which disseminates information about landlord/tenant law. Mail your questions on any aspect of apartment living to AAGLA, 12012 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles CA 90025.
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Apartment Trade Show Set
The Apartment Assn. of Greater Los Angeles will sponsor its third annual trade show from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Oct. 8 at the AAGLA office, 621 S. Westmoreland Ave., Los Angeles.
The show, which is open to the public, will feature free seminars of interest to apartment owners and managers plus exhibits of products and services.
For information, call (213) 384-4131.
