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I'm soon to be a New California tenant with a mutually signed lease by myself and the senior leasing manager and my deposit is already cashed for a Move In date 5 days from now. Today I received a written email stating that my unit will NOT be ready for 3 weeks from now ! I am 90% packed, have changed my address at the PO, have changed my address with my work, my licensing association, creditors, healthcare provider, insurance co, DMV, car registration, financial investment statements, family and friends etc. !
What are my legal rights in CA ? I must vacate my current premises in 7 days after giving a proper 30 days notice to my current landlord. I am holding the new Apartment complex accountable to the contract and feel that they should pay for my movers to move my property into a storage unit, pay for the storage, collect my mail, collect my Amazon purchases, and pay for me to live in a hotel until my unit is ready. This really puts me out !! They have chosen to breach the contract and must compensate me.
HELP !
You can back out of the new lease, and demand an immediate refund of your deposit. You can tell your current LL what happened, and that you'll be staying another month. You can find a new place, if you want to. What you're not going to win is a legal battle with the future LL. What if his current tenant won't leave? What if he found that the departing tenant, although gone, trashed the unit and it needs major work? You think he's not giving you the unit you're supposed to move into just to irk you?
You want a fight, or you want a place to live? Waste a lot of time and money, and lose, or move forward cooperatively, and minimize the damage.
For mail, you can ask the US Postal Sergice (USPS) to hold your mail at the post office for you. You can go in person at the post office to pick up the mail for that period of time. You need to find the address for the local post office that services the new apartment.
For Amazon and other online purchases/deliveries that are not USPS, DELAY from ordering anything until you are living in the new unit. Or arrange with the apartment office to get deliveries there and hold then for you to pickup.
Since you won't be paying rent for the 2 weeks (that apartment is delayed), then you should get a hotel for that 2 weeks. You will be saving rent money for that 2 weeks since the apartment isn't ready then so this 'savings on rent' will help pay toward the hotel. Maybe it will cover the entire hotel? Also check VRBO and AirBNB to see if you can rent something reasonably priced for that 2 week period.
Your biggest issue is that you need to store your furniture for that extra 2 weeks and then pay for movers to get it out of storage.
Can you ask your current rental ASAP if they can allow you to stay an additional 15 days? Maybe it's not rented yet and maybe they will allow. Get everything in writing if they agree.
It's highly likely your NEW lease has some legal clause that doesn't promise that the rental will be ready and gives landlord a free pass if the rental is delayed. Read the entire lease.
Your lease probably has a section that says if the landlord can't provide the unit on the move-in date, that the contract is void.
If you sue them, in CA you can only get out-of-pocket damages directly related to relying on the contract, and you have to mitigate your damages - meaning, you have to do your best to minimize your damages. And, the court might uphold the clause that says they are out of the contract, if they can't provide the unit. I'd fight that, though, as it's a clause that's written to benefit the landlord only, and the court might find it too unfair. Somewhat like a contract of adhesion, I believe the term is. I'd only fight it if I couldn't figure something else out that would work, which the court would expect anyway.
You could try negotiating something with the landlord. Ask if you could be put into another unit temporarily, for instance. You could tell him you will do your best to mitigate damages, but you may have to look to them to reimburse you for costs related to them not having the unit ready on time. You can do this in a way that is firm, but not aggressive.
If you still want the unit, you can move into an Extended Stay Hotel temporarily, and have your stuff put into storage. You could ask them if they have anywhere on the apartment grounds you could store your stuff.
If you end up in court, know that any non-refundable fees in CA are not legal, except for the original application fee which can't be over something like $45 now. And if you end up in small claims court, you will also get your court fees reimbursed.
You could look for another place. Maybe you can stay where you are until the place is ready...
But, maybe if they think you're going to cost them extra money, and not go away easily, they'll expedite things or find another unit for you.
Moving PODS are very popular... you load and they move the POD... most let you rent weekly or daily.
Helped someone move and they kept it for 11 weeks... they were doing remodeling before getting settled and the POD was very convenient and better than moving to storage and out of storage.
Might be worth a call and there are several companies that offer this here.
Last edited by Ultrarunner; 03-15-2016 at 10:45 PM..
Reason: typo
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