Anyone here in CA been to small claims, either suing or being sued?

Uh oh, What happened Nero?

Uhm. Ya. over a fence for my house.

I can say that I have some experience in this area...three-year fight with upstairs neighbor over poorly installed hardwood flooring that deprived me of several months sleep (meaning that if all the lost sleep were added together, it would probably add up to several months solid!), plus an HOA that really wasn't interested in enforcing the rules.

If you believe that you have a case, then go for it. Just be prepared to come with facts and condense it down much as possible, judges roll their eyes when someone comes up with a 6" thick stack of papers and 15 exhibits...

If you win, your filing fee of $50 will be included in the judgment, all you're out is a $10 credit card processing fee (note, with the current budget prices, these fees may have quadrupled, so check it out first). You can file online, then must serve the other party a two-page form, then appear in court (your case MUST be heard at the court having jurisdiction over your area, or area of incident). Not a very pleasant process, but I won and recouped every penny of my attorney fees spent along with the filing fee.

There are court assistants paid to help you for free by phone, but I just researched and did it all online. This link will get you started:

http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/selfhelp/smallclaims/

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Last edited by in2muzikk on Feb-18-2009 at 06:38

As inmuzzik said make sure you have proper evidence and go prepared. I took someone to small claims once. It was more out of principal. Tell us about your case and/or defense.

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Well we are getting sued $5000 for a $1300 security deposit, we own a complex and we were renting out to this x tenant that is trying to sue us.

So they are suing us 1300 for the security deposit, 1300 in punitive damages and 2400 in negligence and bad faith.

Can you freaking believe that? They took it to the max, 5000.00 bucks. I think that's one thing that is key that is going to help us show that they are just trying to pull money out of us.

One thing that bugs me also is that we just got notified today, yet the papers were served 12/05/08. They came them selves and dropped off the small claims court paper work. We NEVER got anything in the mail. The court date is only 2 weeks away, so for over 2 months they had all this time yet we didn't.

Getting to it though...

The tenets left in September, and they left the place a dump. I have 71 hi rez pictures of the condition they left the place. They DID work on the place and DID do some repairs to the unit, but it was still a joke. We still dropped around 3g's into the unit and i did the work my self or else it would have been WAY more. I have estimates to show the judge of $3000 in estimated labor costs by a general contractor and receipts for $800 bucks in appliances.

The one thing where we did mess up with is the 3 week California security deposit law. The law states that we the landlord has to give the tenant in writing a letter why the deposit was not giving back with in 27 days of their departure. The law doesn't state anything at all if the deposit report isn't given within the 27 days We need to list and show repair to actual "damage" and not wear and tear. Well we kind of shit the bed there. We never really formally gave the tenant anything in writing, but we did formally tell them and gave them a property walk through of the unit explaining why the deposit wouldn't be given back.

Another thing is they are complaining about some things NOW and not back then. She claims that the building had "negligence mold" that we never fixed anything "hot water in shower and heater" and that we "violated her rights as a tenant." Which is all BS, if shit was so bad they wouldn't have stayed in the complex for over 5 years. We never knew about any negligence mold, nothing was brought up. When we purchased the complex they were already in the unit and when the inspector came in and inspected the building, mold was not put on the report. And that we violated her tenant rights? She violated the contracting by having over 13 people living in a 3 unit apartment on several occasions months at a time. But this is kind of irrelevant i guess in this matter i think.

So yeah i am just trying to be prepared for court since i only have 2 weeks to prepare for the case to defend our selves.

The only thing they somewhat have on us is the 27 day deposit advisement law where we never notified them why they were not going to get the deposit back. On the other hand, we have receipts, pictures, proof that she made fraudulent paper work and evidence that we spent well over 1300 into the unit once she moved out.

So if any of you guys have any suggestions comments or questions to help me out?

Please do.

what does the copy of the lease look like? Did you authorize them to make repairs?

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She claims that the building had "negligence mold" that we never fixed anything "hot water in shower and heater" and that we "violated her rights as a tenant."

Did she ever notify you in writing? What was your response?

quote:

On the other hand, we have receipts, pictures, proof that she made fraudulent paper work and evidence that we spent well over 1300 into the unit once she moved out

Counter-sue. That might allow you also to postpone the court-date

First off, you can't get punitives.

As for Negligence, they must prove you had a duty, you breached the duty, that you were the actual cause (but for whatever you did) and the legal cause (no intervening factors) and finally damages.

Landlord has a non-delegable duty to make premises safe. Further if they want to use the repair and deduct statute and pay less rent, they have to give written notice about the repairs before they repair and deduct.

They can claim constructive eviction if they left because the place was inhabitable. There is an implied warranty of habitability with residential units (not commercial). So no hot water, heat, the place was flooded...something like that.

Don't ever admit guilt. For all you know, you sent the letter showing the repairs and deductions to their apartment, and by that time they left. So even if you didn't send it...how would they know? And how would you know where to send it to?

In sum, the case will probably be dismissed imo. Your pictures of how you left the place and the receipt showing necessary bills should suffice. And I take it they probably didn't pay their month or two of rent. Throw in the fact that you didn't get adequate notice that they were leaving. (you must get one whole period notice, so a day before the last month)

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This is exactly why I never want to invest in more real estate for the purposes of renting it out and being a landlord. What a hassle. I'd much rather invest in other places. Sorry to hear you're in a mess with that dude. Stress city, eh?

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Originally posted by Orbital32 what does the copy of the lease look like? Did you authorize them to make repairs?

We did not authorize them to do any repairs, but the lease doesn't specifically say that they cant. So i think they were ok on doing so.

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Originally posted by Orbital32 Did she ever notify you in writing? What was your response?

She never did anything in writing, they did complain about some stuff verbally and that stuff was taken care of on time.

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Originally posted by Orbital32 Counter-sue. That might allow you also to postpone the court-date

We thought of that, but we rather just get over it and get it done in 2 weeks instead of having that issue still pending. I might counter-sue but i have to think about it first.

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Originally posted by mar46017 First off, you can't get punitives. As for Negligence, they must prove you had a duty, you breached the duty, that you were the actual cause (but for whatever you did) and the legal cause (no intervening factors) and finally damages. Landlord has a non-delegable duty to make premises safe. Further if they want to use the repair and deduct statute and pay less rent, they have to give written notice about the repairs before they repair and deduct.

Yeah they cant really prove negligence. They never gave us anything in writing. Some repairs were made by them or their friends and we just "payed" them for it. Nothing was ever on paper though. The mold case was never mentioned, the hot water in the bathroom and heater issues were fixed. But like i said nothing on paper.

quote:

Originally posted by mar46017 They can claim constructive eviction if they left because the place was inhabitable. There is an implied warranty of habitability with residential units (not commercial). So no hot water, heat, the place was flooded...something like that.

See they didn't even leave because the place was bad (because of course its not), they left because they couldn't afford it anymore. They all moved into a 2 bed 2 bath place that is a few hundred dollars less a month then our place. They just couldn't afford it so they left.

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Originally posted by mar46017 Don't ever admit guilt. For all you know, you sent the letter showing the repairs and deductions to their apartment, and by that time they left. So even if you didn't send it...how would they know? And how would you know where to send it to?

GOOD point, now that i remember i did drop off a packet with a copy of the disk and all the repairs in the mail for them.....

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Originally posted by mar46017 In sum, the case will probably be dismissed imo. Your pictures of how you left the place and the receipt showing necessary bills should suffice. And I take it they probably didn't pay their month or two of rent. Throw in the fact that you didn't get adequate notice that they were leaving. (you must get one whole period notice, so a day before the last month)

Yeah i am also thinking it will get thrown out in the end for the lack of evidence on her part. I have all the evidence in the world, before and after pictures and documents on everything

One thing though, they did leave on good terms. They actually did pay the rent to the last day they were there, they did give us 30 day notice once the lease expired and everything looked ok. Well everything minus the deposit. LOL

I am also going to go to lunch with one of my x professors from college that was also a Realtor. Hopefully he is in town and i can meet up with him before the court date.

Also thanks again guys.

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Originally posted by skizzell This is exactly why I never want to invest in more real estate for the purposes of renting it out and being a landlord. What a hassle. I'd much rather invest in other places. Sorry to hear you're in a mess with that dude. Stress city, eh?

I mean its kind of a hassle.

This is the first issue we have had in the 5 years we have owned and managed this place.

Its only a hassle when the tenants leave and we have new tenants come in. When everyone stays put, and renews the 1 year contract everything goes smoothly. We have been lucky that a lot of our tenants are happy here and don't plan on leaving soon.

I took my previous landlord to small claims and I won. All I wanted was my deposit back. When I left the place, the place was exactly how they leased it to us. Carpet was clean, windows were the same, everything was the same. However, the landlord claimed they had to do some fixes on the place and the deposit was used towards it.

I didn't have any pix or anything to prove I had left it intact (this was 10 years ago), but I read the lease over and over and over until I found a breach of contract. The lease said no alterations were to be made to the place without prior written authorization from BOTH OF US. I never authorized thosed fixes, court agreed and I won! I got my $1000 deposit back.

I was like 18 or 19 at the time, so I was young. Everyone in the courtroom clapped and cheered when the judge ruled in my favor.

max for small claims court is now $7500 now