Jessica

City: 
San Pablo
Residence Type: 
Single unit
Landlord Type: 
Private Landlord -- No Rent Control

After renting from plaintiff for 30 years never late on rent never missed a payment In Dec of 2013 the home that was never maintained by owners , and passed inspection how for years how i will never know finally took a turn for the what should have been expected by owners , the sink in the bathroom was leaking , the bath tub leaking the toilet seal broken leaking down to basement , the kitchen sink leaking flooding under the sink because of the badly rusted plumbing , heater was not working and had not for year , the rain was coming in from the fan that has not worked for years above stove , i began to smell mildew then days later , i t smelled like sewage , dead animals i called landlord he put us off for days untill i said i would pay a plumber to fix and deduct from rent he showed up that day and brought in handyman fixed one leak and took two gallons of clorox and poured it under the house , I asked him what he planned to do with the sludge , waste under the house he said wait for it to dry then bring in few guys fill buckets with waste throw them into back yard ,i told him no he would not , and if he attemepted to i would call health dept and the police , he said he would return the next day with proper cleaning method and team never happened at that point i made a decision to go the legal way i wrote him a letter on March 3, telling him i would be withholding rent until a inspection was done and until he remedied all the violations in the home i had it notarized and certified mailed to him . He showed up for his rent on March 5 2014 I said sorry you gave us no other option he recanted "you will be sorry this is a war you dont want to start and you wont win " a week later the bathroom walls were covered in mold the bathtub tile as well the ceiling as well , all the windows in the home to molded inside and out the walls began to show mold i contacted landlord and told him you need to bring in a specialeist test what this stuff is and do what you have to this was beyond acceptable and serious he ignored me i contacted code enforcement and filed a complaint i was ignored , i walked in to code enforcement to make a appointment for a inspection , i was informed that the landlord had just cancelled a mandatory inspection and had told them he would be getting back to them but did not that they had attempted to reach him with no luck , Inspection was set for March 12 , march 12 came i called to ask the time they would be coming i was informed that the inspection had been cancelled who canceled it ? she said talk to your landlord and hung up , i then got on computer and wrote the city of sp and few others i thought might help two hours later two inspectors show up saying "we are here to make sure your not in dire danger" they walked around said why are you complaining this is one of the better rentals we inspected , then asked when are you moving ? allen wants you out ? Im not and i will need both of your cards they gave me cards That same night on march 12 , 2014 at 8 40 pm we were served with a 3 day notice to pay ,we then hired a air quality enviromental expert Mr John Riviera from American air testing a experianced proffessional whose work is accepted as expert witness in ca supreme court he came on April 8 2014 spent two hours doing testing , lab results found the highest level a 4 plus contamination for a surface sample with toxic mold . the living room tested Med master bedroom high , bedroom Med the rest of the home high to med ..as well he added that because the home was built in 1939 we can most certainly assume that the home has lead based paint , and asbestos and due to the lack of maintance of the home we can be sure that there are these things in the home , On april 15 we received a letter from the landlord informing us that Code Enforcement would be coming on the 17th to inspect i called code enforcement and asked why they needed to inspect again that two inspectors had allready been there just few weeks back and found the home was in perfect shape , i was told to allow the inspection period .i did , this time it was one inspector , whom did a half baked inspection but cited the landlrod with 25 CA H&S code 17920.3 violations and 64 demerits , 60 days to amend 60 days came and went code enforcement never made sure that he complied and he did not comply , May 1 trial day we went with out counsel , judgement was conditional plaintiff has breached the agreement to provide habitable premises defendant must pay plaintiff a reduced amount of rent of 20 / for march and april for a total of 1808 defendant is the prevailing party only if the defendants pay the 1808 for March and April by may 6th (we paid in full on the 5th ) plaintiff must repair the defects described the court retains jurisdiction over the case until those repairs are made reduced rent till repairs are made , defendants are entiled to attorney fees and costs , our cost was the mold test amount 1825.00 on May 7th plaintiff showed up wanting rent for May we then told him since he had ignored the order to pay us our cost and had not mentioned about the repairs we would deduct it from May $908 and June $908 rent since he had no intention on repair or paying what was ordered , On May 15 2014 two weeks after being in court on this same matter we were served with a 3 day notice to pay we were baffled by this action and thought he was crazy , on june 19 we received another 3 day notice to pay ,On july 4th PG&E came in to check gas lines and found that the hotwater heather was not properly installed was installed with out permit , and was releasing high levels of carbon monoxide ( a report was written on this ) On July 5 we tried to pay the rent for july he refused to take it . July 14th 2014 another 3 day notice to pay July 22, served with a unlawful detainer attached to this was a letter plaintiff attorney had written to commissioner on June 6 2014 saying that we did not have right to cost of mold test because it was not admitted into evidence , thou it was most certainly admitted into evidence , since we showed it to the plaintiff attorney before trial and then it was given to commissioner whom did see it read it , yet the judgement for our cost was cancelled , over turned and we never got a explanation on how or why . We still knew that since the plaintiff was still under the jurisdiction of the court , and that there had been a inspection , that there were H&S code violations cited and not remedied , that the first eviction attempt was blatant retaliation that the civil code of ca clearly says that a landlord can not demand , collect rent , issue a notice of eviction when the dwelling substantially lacks any of the affirmative standard characteristics listed in Section 1941.1 ( most deft does ) or when violation of section 17920.10 Of the health and safety code is deemed and declared substandard as set forth in section 17920.3 of the H&S code because conditions to an extent that endangers the life limb health property safety welfare of the occupants . there was also the fact that there had been a inspection and that 35 days later after being notified by code enforcement plaintiff had not remedied this , Also a landlord cannot collect rent or demand rent if there is no certificate of occupancy and if the city is doing things like they are suppose there should not be one allthou we were told and i quote the inspector "allen doesnt need one " we asked for a jury trial were denied one not enought time we were told , we asked for time to subpoena inspectors and bring in our expert witness the mold expert denied as well even though our witness wrote affidavit explaing on why he could not make the court date but would be available soon after , that was denied as well , the document shows that I jessica was not in court that only Geneva shatswell (my mother in law ) and Michael my husband were there , impossible since i and mike have been the only ones ever to appear before the court never missing a date , and on the date they say i was a no show i signed some waiver because there was a temp judge , also court was on aug 19 at 1 15 pm yet the minutes show that judgement for that trial was entered on august 19 2014 at 830 am how is that even possible ??.there are so many discrepencencys and unethical behavior illegal behaviro that is being practiced blatanlty , on Aug 19 the commissioner did not read or listen or hear our case he asked did you pay the rent no we did not why not because he owed us our costs and because the law says hes not allowed to collect rent and because hes not allowed to open new case on the same issues while still under court jurisdiction .judgement for plaintiff evicted , we were stunned , after 30 years we were getting kicked out with out a thought illegally to top it all mymother in law whom is 87 and very ill my 17 year old in midst of her highschool and studies , traumatic for both of them traumatic and illegal and unfair , i have saved the hardest part of all this for last ....when we moved in with my mother in law 5 years ago we were in perfect health Amber my daughter whom would be 21 now if she was still living shes not on january 17 2012 amber never woke up , she had been suffering from chronic ailments like flu , virus , ear infections , chronic fatigue , deppression , anxiety her immune system had become suppressed doctors did not know why the coroner said her immnune system was to suppressed to fight of what most of us can and do she was weak her lungs filled up with ffluids and she stopped breathing my daughter lives in a box now shes ashes , it never crossed my mind for a second that the house had made her sick now i know that this was is a good probability , in May 2014 my daughter now 17 stopped breathing she was rushed to childrens and addmitted for 4 days she was diagnosed with chronic severe asthama her life changed for ever her life quality never to be the same she to suffers from chronic fatigue , anxiety , stomach problems and skin problems rashes , I have lost almost all sight in my right eye , and have serious skin problems , the biggest loss of all my child amber nothing can be said or done no amount of money can change this loss and the domino effect it has had on my daughters her sisters , their children , my marriage my our lives....we deserve to see justice and this slumlord deserves to know and learn about justice . the man is filthy rich so its not for lack of money that he did not do what hes bound by law to do he has a bussiness that has a yearly revenue of 5 million or more take in he owns homes in brentwood , danville, el cerrito , berkeley , albany , kensington , over 30 properties hes sole owner of as well the inspectors are more to blame then the slumlord since a slumbord cant practice his slumlording when code enforcement does what they are legaly bound to do and the commissioner should not be sitting in a position where he can change a whole family s life we lost our home our belongings and living in a motel we cant get someone to rent to us because of the eviction ..please help us get some justice as i write the end of this i hope someone takes my case and gives me some sort of hope or light that given time justice will prevail...for my daughters and for the daughter whom will never have a chance to live out her life ..thank you .

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