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Can tenant use dirty dishes or death in family to delay eviction notice?

Question: We were given a 30-day notice approximately four weeks ago because we have routinely paid our rent late. We haven't been able to find a place and were supposed to be out by this Sunday. Also, we have had a death in the family out of town and have had to travel to attend the services. Just before we were served with the 30-day notice to vacate, the manager said as long as we pay on time from now on we could stay. Two days later she hands us the notice that she said came down from their property manager. She refuses to give us the name of the property management company or her supervisor. We have been trying to find another rental, yet when potential landlords call our manager’s office to ask questions she does not give a good reference. Thus, we can't find a new place. I don't want to go through an eviction as I have two small children and a husband and they won't extend me any extra time. I have some maintenance problems in my unit as my dishwasher won’t clean my dishes, my kitchen sink is clogged and my carpets need cleaning. I asked for my sink and dishwasher to be repaired over six months ago and it still hasn't gotten done. Do you have any suggestions?

Property manager Griswold replies:

With the exception of possibly the sink, your two outstanding maintenance items are not really habitability issues. The dishwasher should work and you may be able to negotiate a rental discount, but it is not an essential element of habitability and thus not a good defense to the eviction. Nonetheless, I would send the landlord a letter indicating the facts and the unacceptable lack of response. This could be helpful in any future legal action to show bad faith by the landlord.

Of course, with a month-to-month rental agreement either party has the right to give a 30-day notice without cause at anytime. Thus, your options are fairly limited. Unfortunately, the on-site manager can refute the verbal statement about allowing you the chance to stay or they can just say the owner overruled the manager. Also, in most states they are not required to provide the name and/or phone number of the property management supervisor as long as the on-site manager is the agent of legal service for the owner. Although I would not personally understand why they refuse since the property manager apparently is the one that is requiring the manager to terminate your rental agreement and should be willing to stand behind their decision.

As far as the reference -- if you do have a pattern of paying your rent late, then the landlord's reference may be accurate. Check with an attorney, but I do not believe that you would have any recourse against the landlord unless the landlord is giving out severely erroneous and prejudicial or slanderous information in a malicious manner. Usually, it is my experience that certain landlords will actually give good references (for bad tenants) as they want them to leave the property.

In a tight rental market, landlords are not willing to tolerate tenants that pay late or create any problems. Your best bet is to seek an agreement to vacate the premises at a mutually agreeable time, some landlords will empathize with the difficulty and hardship of moving at this time in light of your loss of a family member. Obviously, they have no legal requirement to honor this request, but I suggest that you offer to pay the rent in advance and see what they say.

Question: I am about to purchase some property that I was told is in a rent control area. The property requires many repairs and most likely I will want to raise the rent more than the amount allowed by the rent control statute law for the current tenants. Since I am the new owner, do I have the right to raise the rents?

Property manager Griswold replies:

Rent control statutes and policies vary widely from one local jurisdiction to another, thus you need to contact your local rent control board. Despite the notoriety of rent control, you don’t have to worry about rent control limiting your rental rates unless you are a rental property owner in California, the District of Columbia, Maryland, New Jersey, or New York. In these five states, many of the larger cities and certain surrounding communities have rent-control laws that regulate many aspects of the tenant/landlord relationship. Although the local rent control ordinances are different in each area, they all have limitations on setting and adjusting rental rates. They also have very specific requirements that must be met prior to increasing the rent, if allowed at all. It has been my experience that the typical rent control requirements state that the rents can only be raised to current market when the tenants change, not upon a change of the property owner. Thus, if that is how the rent control laws work for your proposed building, then you cannot raise the rents beyond the amount allowed for current tenants. However, there may be limited provisions that allow you to apply for increases if you can meet certain requirements. Many times rent control boards will allow a reasonable rent increase as long as the funds are expended in upgrading the interiors or exteriors of the rental property. If you own rental property in a city with rent control, you should always have a current copy of the rent control ordinance and be sure that you have a good understanding of all regulations or procedures that you must follow. Hopefully, you have already reviewed these documents, as I would strongly caution to be careful not to take the advice or input of just anyone about such an important issue. It is critical that you have a thorough understanding of all rent control ordinances in writing directly from the appropriate agency before purchasing any property in a rent control area due to the long-term on the income, expenses, operations and resale value of your rental property.

This column on issues confronting tenants and landlords is written by property manager Robert Griswold, author of Property Management for Dummies, and San Diego attorneys Steven R. Kellman, director of the Tenant's Legal Center, and Ted Smith, principal in a firm representing landlords.'

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