It may be the landlord 's property, but it' s the tenant & # 39; s home. Some landlords have a very tough time understanding this.
Proving Harassment
If possible, get statements from friends and neighbors, pictures, and recordings. These cases ability come to the tenants' ability to prove the harassment.
Over the last several decades, courts have expanded tenant defenses to prevent harassment. Where a landlord & # 39; s harassment has forced a tenant to relocate or caused serious emotional distress, the tenant will have many civil claims against the landlord.
Breach of Contract
Civil Code § 1927. Where a landlord has substantively interfered with a tenant 's peaceful enjoyment of a unit, the tenant May sue for back rent. 55 Grant for v. City of Stockton, 55 Cal. App. 3 d 131 ( 1976), for example, the court granted a tenant back rent where the landlord cave multiple arbitrary eviction notices. When a tenant is under constant threat of eviction, request unlawful eviction notices, is verbally or physically infringed by a landlord, and is not benefiting from proper and timely repairs, the tenant can file a breach of contract claim against the landlord. Id. at 139.
Constructive Eviction
At least one tenant to recover twenty years worth of increased home. At least one tenant is forced out of a rent - controlled residence because of the rent - controlled residence. a landlord is determined to get a rent-controlled tenant away from rent control, this rent differential may be trebled.
San Francisco Anti-Harassment Provisions - Rent Control
2) threatening to evict, 3) abusing right to access, or 4) making threats towards the tenant with word or gesture. Wherever the tenant can prove the mistreatment, the landlord will be evaluated a statutory penalty of $ 1,000 for each instance of harassment. The tenant can also see seeking an award of three times out-of-pocket and emotional distress damages. action is cumulative, this means a tenant can collect this and anything awarded under a different cause of action. The statement also for for punitive damages and attorneys fees.
State Anti-Harassment Protection Violations of CA Civil Code § 1940.2 and § 1942.5
Under state law, tenants can be awarded $ 2,000 for each harassment incident where a landlord does not exist any of the following: steals, extorts, threats force, and blocks access. Civil Code § 1940.2.
A state anti-retaliation statute prevails a landlord from harassment a tenant after the tenant has asserted rights under law. Civil Code § 1942.5. Landlords who violate this prohibition are liable for $ 100 - $ 2,000 per retaliatory act.
Examples of Outrageous Landlord Conduct
The elements of the tort of intentional infliction of emotional distress are "(1) extreme and outrageous conduct by the defendant with the intent of cause , or reckless disregard of the probability of occurrence, emotional distress; (2) the plaintiffiff & # 39; s suffering severe or extreme emotional distress; and (3) actual and proximate causation of the emotional distress by the defender & "Molko v. Holy Spirit Assn., 46 Cal. 3d 1092, 1120 (1988) (emphasis added), quoting Cervantez v. JC Penney Co., 24 Cal. 3d 579, 593 (1979). Where a tenant can prove that harassment is intentional or has a reckless disregard, the landlord will be required to pay actual and punitive damages.
The land lord in the case broke into the tenants The jury awarded plaintiffs a sum of $ 7,250 ($ 63,910 in 2009 dollars) as compensation.
In Oweeka v. Bonds, 20 Cal. App. 3d 278 (1971), a landlord raised the rent on tenants in retaliation for a repair and deduct against tenants who used rent to repair. The court noted that no physical injury should be present to award damages for emotional distress.
In spinks v. Equity Residential Briarwood Apartments, 171 Cal. App. 4 th 1004 (2009), the court determined that an unlawful eviction may be outrageous despite the "polite and sympathetic" attributions of a landlord & # 39; s agents. A tenant & # 39; s particular vulnerability at the time of the eviction, in this case a recent reconstructive surgery of the arm, can make an unlawful eviction outrageous conduct on the part of the landlord.
