To help buddy with bad credit, co-sign
Question: A longtime friend of mine recently moved to L.A. from New York. His credit score is miserable, so he’s having a hard time finding an apartment.
Would it be legal for me to rent an apartment in my name, sign the lease and let him live there?
I understand I would be liable for damage or unpaid rent if he should decide to skip town.
Answer: Honesty is always the best policy. It would not be legal or ethical to do what you ask.
However, there is a simple solution to the problem. You can co-sign for the apartment for your friend to guarantee the payment of the rent, and responsibility against possible damage. This is the legal way to do it.
Since you are liable, it is a good idea to have your friend put up the maximum security deposit for the apartment with the landlord. The maximum deposit for an unfurnished apartment is two months’ rent.
This lessens your potential liability, and it should motivate your friend to take care of the apartment and not to skip out on you or the owner.
Tenant was kept out; burglar got in
Question: I live in an apartment building in Long Beach. We were asked to vacate the building for termite tenting.
The owner refunded us the rent for the time we were out, but my neighbor was burglarized during the process. The door was kicked in and the frame shattered.
Since we were barred from the apartments and our rent refunded, isn’t the owner responsible?
Answer: Probably not.
If the owner or exterminator were somehow negligent, they could be responsible for your friend’s losses, but that doesn’t seem to be the case in this situation. Since the door was kicked in, it was not left open in a negligent way.
Many renters are under the impression that owners are liable for damage to or losses of their personal property under just about any circumstances. Not true.
Owners are responsible for their buildings. Renters are responsible for their own personal property. Owners are only liable for renters’ personal property if they are negligent.
It is the renter’s responsibility to get renter’s insurance to cover losses caused by a variety of disasters, including burglary, fire and earthquake, among others.
Sufficient parking? That’s just a perk
Question: I live in an apartment in Los Angeles.
The owner lives here as well, and although he has a couple of spaces blocked off for his own use in the garage, he has none for the tenants.
We have to pay for permits to park on the street.
Is this parking arrangement legal?
Answer: It is legal.
Absent a specific zoning requirement to provide parking for residents, owners are not required to provide parking spaces regardless of how many spaces they have or any parking permit fees that renters may have to pay.
If you wanted to negotiate for a parking space, it would have been best to have done so before you moved in.
If you are under rent control and parking was supplied with your unit at the outset of the tenancy, the owner would be required to give you a rent credit for the value of the parking space if he wanted to take it back.
Where to find needed pamphlets
Question: I need to give my tenants pamphlets on lead paint and radon gas. Where can I find them?
Answer: You are required to give tenants pamphlets about lead paint; you are not required to give them pamphlets about radon gas. Home sellers are required to give buyers pamphlets about lead paint and radon gas. Pamphlets on lead paint can be downloaded from www.epa.gov/lead and from associations that represent apartment owners.
Kevin Postema is the editor of Apartment Age magazine, a publication of AAGLA, an apartment owners’ service group. Mail questions on any aspect of apartment living to AAGLA, 12012 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90025.
