This is in SAN DIEGO, CA.
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 agreed to stop the unlawful subletting. We have her agreement to cease the subletting in writing as well.
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 told my mom that she didn't need to be put up in a hotel. The tenant owns a house of her own very close by to the condo, and she was undoubtedly living there the whole time, while unlawfully renting out my parents' property to turn a profit.
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. This happened around the same time the A/C stopped working. My dad helped her fix it. She called an HVAC co. and had them repair it when it stopped working again, then deducted $425.00 from her next month's rent. Please note that we did not give her permission to do so, and that according to what I know about CA law, this was not a proper "repair and deduct," since she never notified us of it breaking again. She lied and claimed that my mom told her in person that if it broke again, she could just have it fixed and deduct it from her rent, but obviously, this is ridiculously untrue.
When she found out that we had her ad removed, and that we would not accept her false pretenses of repair and deduct, she moved all her things out and sent us a letter claiming that we breached the contract. Additionally, she complained that we retaliated against her by taking her ad down after the A/C debacle, even though we never took it up directly with her; we only "complained" through VRBO (the amendment she drafted stated that we wouldn't accuse, bother, or complain to tenant about subletting). 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. Now we are going to counter-sue for the A/C deduction, plus the remaining rent she owed prior to the day we found a new tenant to move in, some carpet damage, and the amount it cost to change the lock that the tenant removed (she left the unit unlocked when she took off and our keys no longer worked for it).
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 roughly $1500 and we are counter-suing for roughly $2200. Thank you!
Submitted January 15, 2016 at 01:35AM by aneedleofmyown http://ift.tt/1nlRNWS legaladvice
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