I live in a rental unit in California. I moved in four months…

I live in a rental unit in California. I moved in four months ago. Since I have moved in there has been an off an faint odor of mildew near the front door. I have had them come out to check a couple times and have been told nothing. Last week my water heater was shaking and making loud noises. They out and fixed it. It is outside the house and shares a common wall with the area right by my front door. The same area the smell is coming from. Friday night dark colored moisture has started coming through my baseboards and wall. The maintenance guy cut part of the wall out, no on the parts with the mold and said it needed to dry and he would fix. He put simple green on the mold and said that will take care of it. Over the last two days I have found baseboards inside the laundry closet which has dried black mold on it. This closet shares the common wall on the backside of the water heater. What are my rights if I ask them to move me to another apartment.

Response 1: You can terminate the lease without penalty if you no longer want to live at the premises because of the problems that you continue to have and if your Landlord does not want to move you to another premises. The Landlord breached the lease first by continuing to ignore the mold problem. The Landlord’s initial breach releases from further obligation under the lease. This is basic contract law. Where a party to an agreement, a contract, breaches the contract, that breach releases the other party to the contract from further obligation under the contract. A lease is a contract. You may also demand that the Landlord pay for your relocation costs.

What are my rights if they wont in requiring to fix the problem correctly instead of spraying simple green and painting over the mold. Thank you.

Response 2: You have a right to get the repairs done in a reasonable time, which is usually 30 days or less, but it can be shorter period if this is an emergency, which appears to be the case here because of the mold. If the Landlord fails to make the repairs, you have three options: (1) repair and deduct; (2) abandonment (vacate the premises); (3) rent withholding (stop paying your rent).

In repair and deduct remedy, you would make the repairs and deduct the amount from your rent if the cost of the repairs is one month rent or less. This remedy covers substandard conditions that affect the tenant's health and safety, and that substantially breach the implied warranty of habitability.

The basic requirements and steps for using the repair and deduct remedy are as follows:

• The defects must be serious and directly related to the tenant's health and safety;
• The repairs cannot cost more than one month's rent;
• The tenant cannot use the repair and deduct remedy more than twice in any 12-month period.
• The tenant or the tenant's family, guests, or pets must not have caused the defects that require repair.
• The tenant must inform the landlord, either orally or in writing, of the repairs that are needed.
• The tenant must give the landlord a reasonable period of time to make the needed repairs.

The next remedy is to break the lease. This is called the abandonment remedy. In order to use the abandonment remedy, the rental unit must have substandard conditions that affect your health and safety, and that substantially breach the implied warranty of habitability contained in every rental agreement and lease that the leased premises must be all times during the rental period be fit for human habitation. Your situation meets these requirements See California Civil Code Section 1942.

The basic requirements and steps for lawfully abandoning a rental unit are:

• The defects must be serious and directly related to the tenant's health and safety;
• The tenant or the tenant's family, guests, or pets must not have caused the defects that require repair;
• The tenant must inform the landlord, either orally or in writing, of the repairs that are needed;
• The tenant must give the landlord a reasonable period of time to make the needed repairs. Reasonable time is usually 30 days or less. but a short-time would be considered in case of emergency repairs.

Before you move out, you need to give a written notice to your Landlord/management that you are moving out because of the needed repairs, which pose a health hazard, that have not been made despite your repeated requests and because of the safety issue. Make a copy of this letter because you would need it to defend yourself if or when the Landlord sues you for breach of the lease.

The last one would be to withhold the rent. However, the landlord may file eviction action against you for non-payment of rent. You would then defend the eviction action by showing that the landlord failed to make the needed repairs and you therefore stopped paying your rent. By law, a tenant is allowed to withhold some or all of the rent if the landlord does not fix serious defects that violate the implied warranty of habitability. In order for the tenant to withhold rent, the defects or repairs that are needed must be more serious than would justify use of the repair and deduct and abandonment remedies. The defects must be substantial—they must be serious ones that threaten the tenant's health or safety.

The basic requirements and steps for using the rent withholding remedy are:

• The defects or the repairs that are needed must threaten the tenant's health or safety.
• The defects must be serious enough to make the rental unit uninhabitable.
• The tenant, or the tenant's family, guests, or pets must not have caused the defects that require repair.
• The tenant must inform the landlord either orally or in writing of the repairs that are needed.
• The tenant must give the landlord a reasonable period of time to make the repairs.

See California Civil Code Sections 1942, 1942.5, 1941. You may also read California Supreme Court case of Green v. Superior Court (1974) 10 Cal.3d 616 [111 Cal.Rptr. 704]

http://www.caltenantlaw.com/Habitability.htm

http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/displaycode?section=civ&group=01001-02000&file=1940-1954.1

http://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=3179538080603208112&hl=en&as_sdt=2&as_vis=1&oi=scholarr