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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    1

    Default Subtenant Without a Written Lease, What Are My Rights

    My question involves a roommate in the State of: California

    I moved into a house already occupied by a mother & her teenage son. We have no written agreement & I don't know what the terms of her lease/rental agreement with the LL is. The LL knows that I live here (he approached me after I moved in asking me to sign a lease, but he didn't follow through).

    I moved into her son's bedroom & he was supposed to move into a bedroom in the basement, but has been sleeping in the living room for the past 3 months (and consequently the living room is so messy that I can't even be in it). She claims that the downstairs bedroom is unsafe (and that she didn't know that before I moved in) and that landlord is doing nothing, yet his worker is here everyday (fixing up the apartment downstairs, and telling me that he is also fixing the basement bedroom). The worker says he is almost finished with the bedroom, yet she tells me that he hasn't even started. I can't see anything at all wrong with the room downstairs (she claims the walls are rotted).

    The house is filthy (it was very nice & neat when I came to look at it, and the day when I moved in).

    The landlord seems to expect access to the house at anytime during business hours. I cannot tell if he's not giving her written notice, or if she just doesn't bother telling me beforehand. I don't have a back door key, she told me she would give me one, but hasn't. She then told me that she didn't have a back door key. The landlord had our front steps painted, and even though she told me that she told him that she didn't have a back door key, when I came home the front door entrance was blocked off (so that we didn't walk on the stairs), and the landlord had deliberately left our back door unlocked.

    There is black mold in the bathroom that she claims she told the landlord about. There was no shower curtain rod when I moved in, and I paid for and installed one myself (it was the kind that has one rod from the ceiling & goes all the way around. I am unsure of whether or not the landlord actually knows about this. But I'm afraid of waking up one day & being the only tenant at home while there are strange men working in the bathroom.

    Because of the way she acts, I don't believe everything she tells me about how the landlord won't do this, or won't do that. I'm starting to believe that she is lying about her interactions with him.

    She ignores or resists any attempts by me to sit down & talk about the situation.

    I have a number of questions:
    1) Am I allowed to ask her LL anything?

    2) I want to move out in the middle of November, or sooner if I can. Can I tell her to use half of my deposit for that half of the month's rent?

    3) I'm afraid that she won't give me my deposit back. I have a written piece of paper signed by her indicating receipt of half of my deposit, and money order receipts with memos for the other half of the deposit. What recourse do I have if she doesn't give me my deposit back when I move out (provided the room is in the same state as when I moved in)?

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Location
    Toledo, OH
    Posts
    16,307

    Default Re: Subtenant W/O Written Lease, What Are My Rights

    1) You can talk to her landlord whenever you want. It's not illegal.

    2) You can ask, and she can say no. The security deposit is meant to cover any damages and unpaid rent. If the amount deducted for damages doesn't leave enough for your unpaid rent, you'd end up with a bill, and possibly court proceedings to recover what is owed. Better to just pay the rent.

    3) If she doesn't return your deposit within 21 days, sue her in small claims court for the return of it.

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