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Q.What risks does a tenant face if he or she opts to withhold the rent?
A.Upon notice that the rent has been withheld, a landlord may serve a 3-Day Notice To Pay Rent or Quit. If the tenant refuses, the landlord will probably file for eviction. If a court determines that the tenant overstepped his or her bounds by withholding rent either because the rental unit's deficiencies were not serious enough to threaten the health and safety of its occupants, or because the tenant withheld too great a percentage of the rent, the court will order the tenant to pay the rent, the landlord's attorney's fees and the tenant evicted. For this reason extreme caution should be exercised before opting to withhold rent.
If, on the other hand, the tenant wins the case, the court will order the landlord to make the needed repairs, and the tenant will be ordered to pay a reasonable amount of rent to the landlord within 5 days of the court's ruling. If the tenant fails to pay the reasonable rent ordered by the court within the timeframe specified by the court, the judge will enter another judgment for the landlord, and the tenant will probably be evicted.
Another risked is faced by the tenant who does not have a lease for a specified term. If the tenant has a month-to-month rental agreement or a lease that has turned into a month-to-month rental, the landlord may ignore the tenant's notice of defective conditions and seek to remove the tenant by giving the tenant a 30-day or 60-day notice to move. Although this may be grounds for a tenant to bring a counter-suit or claim of "retaliatory eviction" pursuant to California Civil Code 1942.5(a), it does mean everyone is going to court and going to spend some money on attorney's fees.
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