CanI sue my landlord because of the roachesthat Ihave to live with?
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CanI sue my landlord because of the roachesthat Ihave to live with?
I live in an apartment. When we were moving in the manager told us that they have waterbugs sometimes in the apartments. She forgot to mention the roach infestation and spiders.
Asked on November 11, 2010 under Real Estate Law, California
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 13 years ago | Contributor
Every lease has what's known as an "implied warranty of habitability," which is a term implied (added) to all leases--it's a condition of the lease--that the rental premises are fit for their intended use and purpose. For a residence, that means being safely inhabitable, and being safely inhabitable includes not having insect or other pest infestations. If your landlord will not take care of it, you could sue, possibly for an order forcing the landlord to do this, possibly for some monetary damages for the time you've lived with it. (An order forcing the landlord to take care of things is the most common recourse.) You first need to create a paper trail that you have sent written requests to the landlord (in some way you can track deliver) to fix the problem.
M.T.G., Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 13 years ago | Contributor
What you have is known as a breach of the warranty of habitability. That means that the apartment is not livable because of something. Pests can be that something. What you can do is to go down to court and ask to deposit your rent money in to the court until such time as the problem is taken care of. It is sort of like suing your landlord to make the home livable. The Court will then make sure that the problem is taken care of. If it is not taken care of properly you can possibly ask the court to void your lease - which will let you out of the lease - and then you can look for another place to live. Good luck.
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