TAKE, TAKE OUT THE TRASH – YAKITY YAK

Under Cal. Civ. Code section 1941.1(a):

A dwelling shall be deemed [uninhabitable]. . . if it substantially lacks …

(7) An adequate number of appropriate receptacles for garbage and rubbish… with the landlord providing appropriate serviceable receptacles… and being responsible for the clean condition and good repair of the receptacles under his or her control.

Photographic documentation, taken over time, shows that 2 small and 2 large garbage containers are shared by ALL of the tenants at 120 and 130 Caldecott Lanes.  And, that 3 large garbage containers are shared by the tenants at 142 and 150 Caldecott Lanes.

Waste Management charges an “overage” fee for each garbage bag left outside or on top of the garbage containers and has determined, at least as it relates to 120 and 130 Caldecott Lanes, that there are an insufficient number of garbage containers.  

Waste Management promised to deliver six (6) large containers on Monday, March 4, 2013. At least one person witnessed the delivery; however, the new containers were nowhere to be found.  This is their second delivery after which there was a similar absence of new containers. 

Interestingly, a complaint was registered by a tenant in July 2012 for inadequate garbage containers and recorded by Building Code Enforcement.  Another tenant registered a similar complaint with code enforcement in February 2013.  See Complaint No. 1203238.

Click here to search for registered complaints and fill in your address.  If the complaint is "verified," an inspector has investigated the complaint and determined that the conditions reported exist.

At the same time, each unit at 120 to 158 Caldecott Lane is being charged a “garbage collection fee.”  The fee ranges from $20 to $35 per unit and is being charged without any relation to the number of apartment occupants.

Uninhabitable conditions such as these could possibly qualify for tenants for a reduction in rent . . . Click here to learn more.

Inadequate garbage containers is one of the statutory uninhabitable conditions.  

This should give us ALL pause for thought…

DISCLAIMER:   Legal issues are frequently complex and individual.  The information contained on this blog is not legal advice nor does it create an attorney client relationship between the viewer/reader and the writer of this blog.  For legal advice, please consult an attorney who practices landlord tenant law.