Fail to pay rent and 30-day eviction notice shrinks to 3
Question: I have lived in my apartment for 10 years and recently ran into some financial problems, causing me to pay the rent late. The owners allow a five-day grace period for paying the rent, which is due on the first of the month. On the sixth day, I was given a 3-Day Notice to Pay Rent or Quit. Then, on the 19th day, I was given an eviction notice. Doesn’t the owner have to give me a 30-day notice first? The rental agreement says both parties have to give 30-day notices.
Answer: Actually, under a state law that was passed after you signed your rental agreement, owners who want tenants to vacate their apartments must give them 60-day notices to vacate if they have lived in their apartments for more than one year and are complying with all of the terms and conditions of their rental contracts. For tenants who have occupied their apartments for one year or less, 30-day notices are required.
That, however, is not your situation. Your rental agreement requires you to pay the rent on the first of the month. It also allows you an extra five days to pay the rent. Since you didn’t pay the rent on the first of the month, or within the extra five days allowed by your rental agreement, you are not complying with the terms of the rental agreement. That changes the rules.
State law allows an owner to give you a three-day pay-or-quit notice for delinquent rent, making the owner’s notice, and very likely your eviction, legal.
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Financial double whammy is legal
Question: We live in Los Angeles and in June got a notice increasing our rent by a few dollars a month as a result of the Statement of Registration of Rental Units. The notice said the rent increase would remain in effect until the end of the year. Effective Sept. 1, we got a notice of another 3% monthly rent increase of $32.14. In the notice, they also asked us for a check in the amount of $36.11 to increase the amount of the security deposit.
We thought that the first notice that increased the rent by a few dollars a month would be the only rent increase we would get this year. Are we right? Also, isn’t the increase of the security deposit supposed to be the same amount as the rent increase?
Answer: Both of the “rent” increases that you got are legal. The first is not really a rent increase at all, even though that is what it is called. Rather, it is reimbursement to the owner for a fee that he paid to the city for the administration of rent control.
The 3% rent increase that you subsequently got is the annual rent adjustment that owners are allowed to offset their increasing costs and the effects of inflation.
Finally, under Los Angeles city rent control, owners are allowed to increase rents and security deposits annually at the same time and by the same percentage. The amount of the increases is only the same if the amounts of the rent and security deposit are the same, which is often not the case.
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‘No pets’ policies still up to owners
Question: I live in Ventura and I’ve heard that apartment owners must now allow tenants to have cats and dogs as pets (not just companion animals or guide dogs) and that “no pets” policies are illegal in California. Is this true?
Answer: This is not true. Apartment owners must allow tenants, with a doctor’s note, to have companion animals such as guide dogs for medical or health reasons. But there is no new law requiring owners to allow all tenants to have cats and dogs. The decision to allow or prohibit pets in general remains optional and is made at the owner’s discretion.
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Three ways to lose security deposit
Question: I live in Inglewood and plan to move next year. I had a horrible experience with my last landlord. He kept my security deposit. Is that legal?
Answer: Landlords can keep security deposit monies for three things: unpaid rent, damages that exceed normal wear and tear and cleaning.
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E-mail questions to AptlifeAAGLA@aol.com, attention Kevin Postema.
