Tenants' rights consult / legal help regarding rodent issues
We're dealing with ongoing rodent infestation issues in our rental, and would like to consult with someone who can advise us on our rights and our ability to end our lease early. Not sure if this would be a real estate attorney, some type of non-profit, or somebody else, but any referrals or suggestions would be welcome. This is a higher-end rental and we'd like to get our proof and paperwork or whatever else is needed in order to exit the lease early and gracefully, without impacting our credit, if we need to. We are in Contra Costa county.
Jan 19, 2023
Parent Replies
A good tenant lawyer is the way to go. We had a lead paint problem a few years ago when we rented an old Victorian. The new corporate owners hired workers to sandblast layers of lead paint off the siding and the dust was flying everywhere and the workers didn't care and did no clean up, all that stuff was just landing on the grass where our baby played and crawled around. We wanted out of our lease and hired Jeffrey Carter, a tenant rights attorney in Berkeley. His number is 510 548 4774. He's probably in his 60 or 70's, I just googled and it seems like he's still working. His fee was very modest, I think a couple hundred dollars. We had an in person consult with him to explain our problem, showed him photos of what was happening, emails and texts that we went to ask that they take care of the mess, and he took over from there. He sent the owners a letter on our behalf and notified them of our intention to move due to (fancy lawyer words...) unsafe conditions and cited laws and stuff, and let them know that our deposit can be mail to his office (so that the new owners wouldn't know where we moved to). And of course he put in there that all communications regarding this matter should now be handled through him. We got our deposit back, no fuss, totally worth it. Once a landlord sees that you're serious about a problem and have sunk money into solving it instead of just complaining, they're going to take it seriously too, and it's often a better financial decision to cut you loose than drag it out. Good luck.