Charlotte, NC · Member since 2016 · 29 posts · 6 votes
looking for some help and insights from the community. My sister in law and husband recently moved to LA into a single family home which is broken out into two units (upstairs and downstairs). The landlord charges them a flat $1k a month in utilities along with $200 a month for lawn maintenance. As they've gotten settled the experience has become a nightmare. Every week something goes out in the home with the most recent being the lower outlets throughout the home. The LL is wanting to charge them back for the cost of bringing an electrician out to resolve the matter. At this time I think the apartment itself is not legal as it appears to be zoned a SFR. He has not provided any copies of utility bills and apparently is the "gardner" that is billing them $200 a month. The tenants downstairs from them dont raise a stink as the boyfriend doesnt have his green card so they're not going to anything to rock the boat. What are their rights as tenants and what can they do at this point? Its too much to deal with a LL weekly if this keeps up and I've only shared the most incident. Please provide thoughts and insights into what she can do.
Others already gave you info on where to find tenant's rights, but for utilities and lawn maintenance, they signed the lease agreeing to those terms. Even if the landlord does it himself, it still takes time to maintain the yard. For electrical, unless they overloaded circuits and caused the damage, it is up to the landlord to cover the expenses. As they are now coming up on their 1 year lease renewal, why don't they try to find somewhere else to live and let the landlord know that they are not renewing their lease?
Real Estate Agent · Los Angeles, CA · Member since 2018 · 2k+ posts · 1k+ votes
2y
If you are wanting to find out if it is legal or not, check out Zimas.LaCity.Org, type in the address and go under permitting on the left hand side. That should give you some insight. If it is completed without permits, you can likely report it to the City.
I agree with Theresa on the gardener bills. But I might consider pushing back on the utilities depending on what the lease says.