The San Francisco Citizen

Here it is in today’s San Francisco Chronicle: “If landlord delays fixes, ‘repair and deduct.‘” Click on over and read what “Property Manager Robert Griswold” has to say.

So, all that is fair enough, as far as it goes. But, gees Louise, there are caveats galore that could be appended to the pithy advice found in the article.  How about a link to the California Department of Consumer Affairs, where they have all sorts of advice about reparing and deducting, including this:

“Each of these remedies has its own risks and requirements, so the tenant should use them carefully”

Or as a commenter at SFGate.com suggests, check out Berkeley’s Nolo, “your legal companion since 1971.”

The Nolo outlet at 950 Parker in Berkeley.

Now back in the day, you could guess at the law and everything would generally work out. But those days are over. Basic ideas that were burned into the California Constitution  in the 1800’s have been tinkered with incessantly. Thusly.

Now all that can be good or bad. If your former landlord is thinking about retaining your security deposit in bad faith, the law created by Senator Carole Migden’s old Assembly Bill 2330 might give him or her reason to pause. So that’s good.

But let’s say your flaky roommate took off for Tibet two months ago and left some of his stuff around - exactly how you go about handling things is important. Very important. If you guess at the law or use your own sense of what’s right, then you might make painful mistakes. That’s bad.

Ces’t la vie en Calfornia.

Anyway, If your landlord delays fixes, consider ‘repairing and deducting. How’s that for a headline?