My building has been getting worse and worse and the Landlord and Property Manager are nearly useless (and in CA), my building has no super and the security has been increasingly unsafe. What started as a few squatters in empty units has now become a den of drug use and sex work, vandalism has begun as well. The few of us who live here have repeatedly told the property manager about these issues and in the last month little to nothing has been done, changed the front door lock which a police officer showed me a way to pick with a plastic knife and boarded up 1 window, many units are now being squatted and every morning a new part of our shared space is trashed or vandalized. Police are here daily but without a landlord or representative present they cannot enter units to investigate.
2 of the RS tenants have already filed paperwork to take the landlord to Housing Court over issues like broken intercom system and old plaster on the walls, I am not stabilized and with rents increasing rapidly in the city am weary of not having a lease renewal (I know that if you arent RS it is just a matter of time before I am out which is fine but I'd like to stay as long as possible) so I don't want to pick my battle on something like an intercom system which is easily fixed resulting in a dropped case.
So my question if anyone can answer is that am I within my rights to withhold rent under the warranty of habitability implied in my lease? If so what steps need to be taken?
- Notify the landlord/PM via certified mail that I plan to withhold rent if these repairs are not done by beginning of the month? (I have many emails with them dating back weeks about these issues so they are plenty aware)
- I should open a new savings account to put my monthly rent in?
- If and when these repairs are done I will then have to give them this back rent, correct?
- My landlord currently auto withdraws my rent, which they never gave me an option to mail a check so I would need to tell my bank to refuse payment to them as well.
- After something like this would it be viewed as retaliation to not offer me a new lease (exp 4/30)
thanks for any help/advice
Merry Christmas