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Landlord or tenant responsible for beetle problem inside the apartment in California.
Anonymous2 views1 answers
My tenant ask me to fix the beetle problem inside the unit after two years living in my property in CA. The pest control company concluded that these are rice beetles as a result of the tenant who has been keeping the rice and flour products for too long and other sanitary issues. Should the landlord be responsible for the issues that was caused by the tenant? Every month, my tenant come up with different issues, spiders, ants, beetles, and etc. in order to hold the rental payment and ask us to spend a lot of money to fix things for him. Can the tenant hold monthly rental payments because of these different excuses that he come up with? As a landlord, how can I protect ourselves for bad tenant like this?
Thomas Anthony SchaefferCriminal Defense AttorneySan Diego, CA ·
Answer: it depends. From the facts here, it sounds as if the tenant is living a bad conditions of their own making. If they are hoarding or doing other things which are causing damage to your property, then they would be liable for the damages. Of course, all buildings have spiders and bugs from time to time so it may be difficult to determine what is causing the problems, other than the current beetle problem (which you've been told is caused by the tenants).
So, yes. A tenant can withhold some or all rent after telling of you of a problem and giving you a reasonable amount of time to cure. In terms of pest control, make sure the property is up to date with routine spraying/maintenance.
What I'd suggest is getting rid of these people by giving them a notice to vacate that conforms to the terms of your lease agreement and finding a new, hopefully cleaner tenant.
Good luck!
