What are my rights as a tenant?

[Peggy Liu]

Hi everyone.  I live in Los Angeles and as many people know, the crime rates in LA have skyrocketed since the pandemic.  I currently live in a three-story 17-unit apartment building for the past twelve years.  The ground floor is where the garage is.  Over three weeks ago, the landlord informed us that the garage gate is inoperable.  She says it would take about three days to repair the circuit board.  This was May 22nd.  A week goes by, the gate is still not repaired.  The gate remains wide open for anyone to come into and out of the garage.  All the tenants as well as myself have urged the landlord to get this fixed asap as we've encountered strangers roaming around in the garage peering into the cars.  Two weeks passes, several of the cars were broken into in the middle of the night.  Personal and some valuables were stolen from some trunks.  Videos have shown that it appears to be an organized crime.  Two men in masks scoped every car in the garage at 2 in the morning.  This was alarming and again, all of the tenants urged the landlord to fix the gate.  We told her that if she does not, it is a matter of time before something else happens.  And it did.  June 12th, my scooter which I have already agreed to sell to my coworker was stolen from the garage at 4:38AM.  I had locked my scooter but, apparently, the thief was able to unlock it.  Not only is it UNSAFE to be in the garage after midnight, now my motorized vehicle is stolen.  One of the tenants has gone ahead and hired a night security guard to watch the building from 11PM-7AM for $200 per night until the landlord fixes this gate.  Again, we told the landlord that if she does not fix this gate ASAP we are going to file a suit for the lost of our possessions and the lack of security in the building.  It is VERY unsettling to know that there are thieves going in our garage every week.  About half of the neighbors in the building have all had items stolen from their vehicles.   It's now Sunday night and the gate is still NOT fixed.  Is my claim reasonable?  What can I do in this case of a very negligible landlord?