Are You an Apartment Tenant? Protect Your Consumer Rights
Sometimes it seems as though California apartment tenants do not have many rights. Much of the talk out there is about the benefits of home ownership. The fact that so many people are tenants, not homeowners, gets lost in the shuffle. Tenants often seem an afterthought.
Tenants do, though, have consumer rights. They just might be unaware of them. Many tenants do not want to remain renters for long and may not take the time to understand their rights when it comes to deposits, payments, leases and other issues. Then when a problem arises, they do not know if or how the law protects them.
As a tenant, it is important to know what your rights are. For example, do you know that a landlord can charge $25 for a bounced rent check and $35 for each additional bounced rent check? As a tenant, you have a right not to pay more than what the landlord is legally allowed to charge.
What about security deposits? Do you know that a landlord can legally charge no more than two months of rent for an unfurnished apartment and no more than three months of rent for a furnished apartment? Or that a landlord has 21 calendar days to refund a security deposit after the tenant has vacated the property? If a landlord demands more than what is legally allowed or takes too long to return a security deposit, then the landlord has violated the tenant’s consumer rights.
If you are a tenant and you think that a landlord has treated you unfairly or broken the law, then contact us. We are the Spencer Law Firm, and we are here to protect your rights.
