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After years of ignored complaints, deferred maintenance, and several emergency events, you’ve had enough of your landlord’s failure to repair your dilapidated rental home. You’ve made more complaints – oral and written – than you can count, you’ve reported them to the government and obtained notices of violation from your local code enforcement agency, and you’ve attempted to mediate the matter, possibly even through your local Rent Board. But, these efforts proved fruitless. Your home remains plagued by conditions that render it uninhabitable to the point it endangers your health, safety, and body. You’ve already thought about suing your landlord and know it is possible, and you contemplated what constitutes an actionable habitability defect, you now recall that your rental unit never habitable.  That is to say, your landlord tendered possession of your rental home to you with habitability defects.  As you begin to suspect you may become displaced due to your landlord’s abject failure to repair your rental home, you begin to wonder: Does my landlord have to fix habitability defects existing before I move into my rental unit?

Yes, your landlord and property manager must fix habitabitly defects existing in the rental unit before you take possession of the unit when commencing your tenancy.  Becker v. IRM Corp., (1985) 38 Cal. 3d 454, 468 (overruled on other grounds in Petersen v. Superior Court, (1995) 10 Cal. 4th 1185, 1210).  Arguably, the landlord and property manager shouldn’t ever place a unit containing habitabitly defects on the rental market.  But, in the event that they do, they must ensure that the unit is habitable at the time the California tenant takes possession.  The law explicitly requires the landlord, or their property manager, “to make such inspection in the absence of knowledge of any existing defects or of any prior accidents.”  Id.  This is because, “[m]aintenance of rental property in a safe and habitable condition is the primary responsibility of the landlord.”  Green v. Superior Court, (1974) 10 Cal. 3d 616, 627.  Accordingly, the landlord’s duty to provide a habitable home begins before a California tenant moves in and requires reasonable inspection and repair before they even take possession.

But, that doesn’t always happen.  When faced with habitabitly defects in their home, the best recourse a California tenant can take is to tender notice of the defect, preferably in writing.  Repeated complaints and broken promises should not define your experience at home.  When substantial habitability defects persist and requests for repairs go unanswered, pursuing a habitability claim may be an important step toward holding those responsible accountable and seeking compensation for the harm you have suffered. Your complaints, photographs, inspection reports, and records of losses can help tell that story, and help you as you litigate your breach of the implied warranty of habitability claim (not making repairs) in a court of law.