HELP - Looking for Tenant Advice... (Berkeley, San Bruno: apartment, lease, insurance)

[MorCar06]

[SIZE=2]My wife and I have been living in the same place in San Bruno for about 2 years now. In all our time living there, we've been "model tenants". We've always paid our rent early or on-time, never called for anything trivial, never complained (nor has any of our neighbors about us), and all the other good stuff. Everything was pretty much set which made both both of us think that we'd probably stay there another year.

Unfortunately, on March 20th my car got broken into while parked in our designated carport. Even worse, I had my wife's spare key in my car's glove box. So long story short, her car was stolen. We did all the proper protocol - called our insurance company, reported the incident to the police, etc. We then notified our property manager about the break in. We had to leave 5 different messages before we even got a call back - over a week later! We tried to talk to them to see if there's anything they can do to at least make the property a little more safe (better lighting, motion-sensors, etc.)…their answer was a simple "NO". So we started looking for new place as we just had this feeling of uneasiness especially because of our 18-month old son. We just felt that our safety has been compromised. We finally found a place, got the paperwork signed and thought that we were home-free. Not quite…

I called the property manager and sent him an email…again, it took multiple tries before I even got a hold of him. I gave him a formal 30-day notice, to which he said that our lease was not up yet. I tried to reason with him and stated that since we've been good tenants for two years and were victims of property invasion and theft, if they could give us the courtesy of an early exit. Again, the answer was a straight "NO". He did say that if we are able to find new tenants who can move-in on May 1st, that we will be "off the hook". So we did everything that we could to help speed up the process. We posted ads on Craigslist, had people come to our place and show the apartment, got them in contact with the property manager, got them started off with paperwork, etc. Unfortunately, he just seems completely disinterested to help out in any way. While we're doing all the legwork, he has been almost invisible throughout the process. He didn't put up any listings, not even a "For Rent" sign on the property, and never gets back to any of our voicemails or emails. So at this point, we feel that they are probably going to hold our $2K deposit as hostage.

My question is…is there anything I can do or maybe anyone I can contact to get this resolved? I'm just afraid that with all that we need to do and the continuous lack of involvement from the property manager that we won't have enough time to get someone to transition in to our place.

Thank You so much in advance for any advice/insights/solutions that anyone could provide.
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[PeixeGato]

When does your current lease end? While this may not be of any comfort, maybe you were just victims of bad luck with the car break in. Its a good thing that nobody from your family was in any personal danger. Aside from that issue, have there been any problems? If your lease isn't up until the fall, you might be better off waiting until then as it is easier to find places Nov - March than it is Apr - October.

In the end, I'm not sure the landlord or property manager has to do anything. You might contact your local government landlord/renters board to find out if there is anything you can require them to do (i.e. better lighting, etc). But again, from a legal standpoint, I'm not sure you have many options.

I sympathize with your situation, but try to look at the big picture and make the laws work for you. In other words, if you lease is up in June, then just say you want to convert to month-to-month. Then, give 30 days notice to move out at the end of October. I know that in Berkeley, there are only a small handful of reasons that a landlord can get rid of you, regardless of the type of lease you have. I'm not sure if that is a Berkeley thing or if it is state wide. If you don't get your full security deposit back, you can take the landlord to court. If the court finds that the landlord incorrectly withheld your money, they will have to pay you 2x the amount they withheld. yes, its a pain, but if you win, you get double your money back.

If things are really bad and your REALLY don't feel safe where you live now, then you could just move (with your 30-day notice letter) and forefeit your deposit. The landlord might come after you for the remaining rent, but you'd have a pretty good case in court, I'd think. Also, the landlord would have to show that they've actually tried to re-rent the apartment to mitigate their losses.

Hope it works out for you.

[zitsky]

How bad was the situation at your apartment in terms of security? Have you talked to other tenants to see if they have had cars stolen or break ins? You did admit that part of what happened was your fault by leaving the key for the other car in your glove box.

You did sign a contract so you have to honor that or face the unfortunate consequences. Did you give 30 day notice by email or by mail, FedEx, etc.? Have you reviewed your lease to see if it talks about security? I'd consider getting an attorney to look this over. You might want to take this to small claims court.

[MorCar06]

Thank you both for your very insightful replies. We are actually moving out of our old place on Saturday, get the place cleaned and have ready for Move-In on the 3rd (Monday). Since our deposit of $2000 covers our rent plus an additional $500, could we just tell the landlord to take the rent from our deposit and once the place is rented, then they can just give us the remainder? I calculated that for each day, it is about $46.39 per day. So if the place is rented out, say by May 11th, could they just deduct $532.29 from our depost and maybe a cleaning fee of $200 and return $1267.71 to us? Just wondering since we're technically not living there anymore, and the fact that our depost covers the remainder of the lease - which ends on May 31st.