This is in SAN DIEGO, CA.
I've shortened this a bit so hopefully I can get responses.
My mom's tenant was subletting her condo on VRBO, a vacation rental website very much like Airbnb, against the terms in her lease (it was very clear in writing that this wasn't allowed). Instead of evicting her, we agreed to let her continue her stay after she signed a violation notice form agreeing not to do it again.
About five months later, there was a refrigerator leak and we discovered upon entering that she was still subletting the unit. Construction needed to be done because of the leak, and so it was deemed "uninhabitable" by tenant. It should be noted that my mom, along with the maintenance personnel, found rags stuffed under the fridge, that most likely indicated the tenant knew there was a problem and did not notify us of it in a timely manner.
The tenant owns a house of her own, and was undoubtedly living there the entire time while renting out our unit. She said we did not need to provide her housing accommodations during the time she was out.
My mom told her (over the phone, so unfortunately there is no written evidence) that the construction would be done in a week. The tenant says she texted my mom on multiple occasions about when she could move back, but my mom was having issues with her phone at this time, and did not respond. The tenant did not move back in until two weeks later, and then when it came to paying the rent, she only paid for half that month. After some arguing and threats of possible eviction, the tenant agreed to pay for one of those weeks, but as a condition, she wanted to renew her lease with us, and wrote up an amendment to the lease that said we would "no longer accuse, bother, or express concern to tenant" about subletting, and then manipulated my mom into signing it. My mom doesn't speak English all that well, btw.
My mom didn't think the tenant would continue to sublet, only that she didn't want us to pester her about it anymore, but we caught her doing it again about three months later. I contacted VRBO to have them take her ad down.
When she found out that we had her ad removed, and that we would not accept her false pretenses of repair and deduct on an A/C issue, she moved all her things out and sent us a letter claiming that we breached the contract. We only "complained" through VRBO (the amendment she drafted stated that we wouldn't accuse, bother, or complain to tenant about subletting, which my mom signed. Please note that I am the only one who contacted VRBO, and we never complained to her directly about her unlawful activities after the amendment). We also have proof that we planned to have the ad taken down before she sent us the receipt for the A/C. When we threatened to sue, she sued us first.
I would really appreciate your thoughts about our chances of winning the case, so we can decide whether or not to try and settle out of court/hire a lawyer. The best we could find was consultation for $250/hour. We are being sued for her entire security deposit plus one week's of rent she had agreed to pay us, even though she was "put out," totaling appx. $1500. We are counter-suing for roughly $2200, which is the amount she owes in unpaid rent until the time we were able to find a new tenant, plus some damages, (minus her $1000 deposit, which we kept). Thank you!
Submitted January 15, 2016 at 03:21AM by aneedleofmyown http://ift.tt/1Q19vZ0 legaladvice
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