They’re difficult to deal with, they’re constantly yelling, and they find every excuse in the book to nag about your rental – landlords from Hell are every tenant’s nightmare, and for good reason! Peaceful interaction is almost always impossible with these people without the intervention of a Los Angeles tenant attorney.
There are normal landlords, and then there are landlords from Hell – these are the absolute worst of their kind and they never fail to terrorize unsuspecting tenants. Luckily, there are laws in place to protect tenants from these landlords. This article enumerates some helpful survival tips by tenant attorneys.
A tenant lawyer is your best bet if you want to get a good outcome out of any interaction with landlords from Hell. However, this does not necessarily mean you have to break the bank. Depending on your needs and situation, you can have a tenant attorney coach you instead of actually hiring one. You can seek their advice when faced with a landlord issue so you don’t get taken advantage of.
However, landlords from Hell don’t only cause minor annoyances to a tenant. They can also cause more serious issues as well. In these cases, hiring a tenant attorney would be more helpful.
Hiring a Los Angeles Tenant Attorney for Eviction Cases
Of course, landlords from Hell are those that use eviction to scare you into obedience and good behavior. You can expect them to threaten you with a possible eviction if you so much as look at them the wrong way.
Tenant attorneys are especially helpful when you’re facing eviction – whether it’s legal or illegal. Legal evictions can be fought without one, but the odds of winning are much higher with a lawyer in your corner.
Tenant Survival Tips
Aside from eviction cases, you can handle most issues with a landlord from Hell on your own – as long as you do it correctly. Here are some survival tips to help out:
Dealing with Discrimination
Landlords generally have the right to choose their tenants. However, there are limitations to this. Their criteria for choosing tenants should be entirely professional – they should not discriminate against a tenant’s race, religion, politics, etc.
Whether you’re a potential tenant or a current one, discrimination is not easy to deal with. If you’re being discriminated against by a landlord from Hell, you can definitely take action against them.
Tenants can file a fair housing complaint with the Department of Housing and Urban Development or HUD. The department also has several state agencies in their Fair Housing Assistance Program (FHAP). This is a great alternative to those who can’t afford to hire a Los Angeles Tenant Attorney.
According to HUD, they receive over 10,000 discrimination complaints each year – that’s 10,000 landlords from Hell discriminating against tenants!
If HUD chooses to investigate your complaint further, they will determine if there is reasonable cause to believe that your landlord is discriminating against you. Once they do, you’ll get a lawyer from HUD to represent you at no cost!
Dealing with Property Negligence
A good landlord keeps their property well maintained. They repair whatever needs to be repaired in a timely manner.
A landlord from Hell, on the other hand, won’t bother with repairs and will often hold off on repairing anything for as long as they can. Even if you lose heating in Winter due to a faulty heating system or even if you have faulty locks that don’t make you feel secure, this landlord will still hesitate to initiate repairs.
When you’re dealing with a landlord from Hell who delays or totally dismisses repairs, you have a number of options. For one, you can opt to just stop paying your rent until after your landlord repairs what’s broken. Think of it as a legal way to protest your landlord’s negligence!
You also have the option of paying for the repairs out of your own pocket. You may then deduct the amount you spent from your monthly rent payments. Again, you’re legally allowed to do this. For specific cases, you may seek the counsel of a Los Angeles tenant attorney to iron out the details of the execution.
Dealing with Broken Promises
Landlords from Hell lure tenants with elaborate promises that they later refuse to deliver. For example, your landlord may promise to make the property more secure by installing better locks, new security cameras, and outdoor lights. However, if they later refuse to do as promised, you can take action.
In this case, you can request your lawyer to write a letter to your landlord. Landlords may be held accountable should there be criminal activities at their properties so this would be a good opportunity to remind them of this and encourage them to follow through with their promise to better security measures in the property – landlords from Hell need extra motivation to perform as expected.
Dealing with Personal Property Damage
A very important survival tip is to make sure you get renter’s insurance. When landlords from Hell don’t maintain their rentals, it’s possible for one’s own personal property to suffer damage as well. For example, a faulty electric wire that the landlord refuses to repair can cause an electric fire that can destroy your personal things.
If you have renter’s insurance, you don’t have to worry. Your insurance company will pay for the losses. They’ll be in charge of charging your landlord for the damages as well so they basically do all the dirty work.
Renter’s insurance is important in this case because the only alternative option is to hire a Los Angeles tenant attorney. They could represent you and get reimbursement from your landlord for all the damages or provide consultations and advice regarding the next steps to get reimbursement from your landlord yourself.The survival tips given can help you get through these common issues with landlords from Hell. For more specific or complicated concerns, consultation and coaching from a tenant attorney would yield the best results. Give your local Los Angeles tenant attorney a call today!
