Appeal to Tenants’ Reason May Help in Family Crisis

QUESTION: My mother owns a house in Torrance that she rents out on a lease. The tenants, who are reasonable people and good tenants, have about 1 1/2 years left on their lease.

Unfortunately, my mother has had a stroke and her health is declining. The best financial and health options now are that I move into the rental house with her so that I can care for her. How should I go about asking the tenants to leave? I don’t want to make it difficult for them, but the sooner the better.

ANSWER: Unless there is a special provision in the lease covering this kind of situation, you may not be able to force the renters to leave, which your letter appears to assume, unless they are somehow violating the lease.

For tenants, the primary benefit of signing a lease is its guarantee that they can stay in the property until the lease expires.

Fortunately, your letter also says that the tenants are reasonable people. Under the circumstances, and depending on just how reasonable they are willing to be, they may move out at your request after you explain the situation to them. If not, they still may be willing to move if you offer them an incentive, cash is usually effective.

The amount of cash and the timing of the move are subject to negotiation. If you can’t agree on terms for an early end to the tenancy, you may have to wait until it expires to take possession of the house.

Rent Reduction for Bad TV Reception?

Q: I have lived in a large Los Angeles apartment complex for the last 24 years. Three to four weeks ago they put in a new cable TV system. Since then, my reception has been terrible, with all wavy lines. There are some stations that I can’t even get anymore.

When I spoke with the property manager, he said, “You will have to climb aboard and get cable.” I told him that I can’t afford $33 a month for this because I am a senior citizen living on Social Security.

He suggested that I get “rabbit ears,” but I can’t afford them either and have no room for this appendage in my apartment. Can they do this after all of these years? There are many others here who are homebound and rely on TV as their only companion.

A: There is no doubt that the building’s owners may switch to cable TV, but it is doubtful that they can impair your TV reception in doing so if this is a rent-controlled apartment building.

If this is a rent-controlled building in the city of Los Angeles, you may have a claim for “diminished services,” requiring a rent reduction equal to the amount of money saved by the owner if the changeover is the cause of the problem.

The savings may be nothing at all or the owner may be getting compensated by the cable company. In the latter case, the rule is that the monthly gain by the owner should be pro-rated among the persons damaged by the cable hook-up.

According to Trevor Grimm, general counsel of the Apartment Assn. of Greater Los Angeles, even if the owner didn’t save any money by the conversion, “you may still have a strong case for a rent reduction given the importance of your TV viewing to your satisfaction with your unit.”

Your first step is to find out whether the building, and your unit in particular, are rent-controlled. If they are, you should make the owner aware of his obligations under the rent control law.

He probably should, at the very least, make an effort to clear up your problem, which may just take reactivating the building’s TV antenna system.

By Any Other Name, It’s Still a Security Deposit

Q: I live in a retirement community in La Mirada. The owners of the community collect one month’s rent in addition to the first month’s rent but do not say what it is for and do not pay any interest on the money.

Please tell me the name and number of the California law that allows them to do this.

A: The California law to which you refer is California’s Civil Code, Section 1950.5.

Under the law, if your apartment is furnished, the owner can charge you up to three months’ rent in addition to the first month’s rent. For an unfurnished unit, the owner can charge up to two months’ rent.

It doesn’t matter that the owners do not give the charge a name. Every cent collected in addition to the first month’s rent is security under the law, even if it is called last month’s rent.

Under the law, all security deposits also are refundable within three weeks after the termination of the tenancy with deductions allowed for cleaning, damages and unpaid rent.

There is no state law requiring apartment owners to pay interest on security deposits, though there is such a law that covers rent-controlled properties in the city of Los Angeles.

Postema is the editor of Apartment Age magazine, a publication of AAGLA, an apartment owners’ service group. Mail your questions on any aspect of apartment living to AAGLA, 12012 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90025.