Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in California

Tenant moves a freeloading boyfriend in the house she is renting--

I am taking a tenant to small claims court for not paying six weeks rent, breaking the lease before her year was up, an illegal dog, and cleaning and painting costs; the deposit does not cover all these costs. I found out after I filed the lawsuit from neighbors that she also had moved in a boyfriend, which is a violation of the lease. He also seen smoking in the house, which is a violation of the no smoking stipulation of the rental agreement. Can I bring this up to the judge in small claims and ask for additional damages above what I totaled when I filed??


Asked on 7/22/11, 5:31 am

1 Answer from Attorneys

Unless the boyfriend or the smoking actually cost you more money, you are wasting your time and will piss off the judge by wasting court time. You are entitled to the lost rent between when she breached the lease and when you did or could have gotten a new tenant in the property. You are also entitled to all expenses incurred in repairing damage and restoring the premises to the condition when she moved in, less reasonable wear and tear, and your out of pocket expenses for finding a new tenant. All the other things she did, the boyfriend, the dog, the smoking, etc., are breaches of the lease that might have given you grounds to evict, but they cost you nothing (unless the dog or the smoking did damage to the property, which was covered above). So since she has already left, all those other things are irrelevant to the court, and there are few things that will anger a judge more than someone trying to put in a bunch of totally irrelevant evidence just because they are pissed off or want to show what a bad person the other party is.

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Answered on 7/22/11, 11:22 am


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