My landlord raised our rent when we had a new roommate take over our prior roommate's room... is this legal?

Question

We have been at our San Francisco 3br apartment since July. Our roommate had to move out, so we found a new roommate from craigslist with great credit history and everything. After he signed all the paperwork our landlord sent us a letter saying he is raising the rent by $100 a month because the lease has changed with the new roommate being on there. I've never heard of a landlord doing this. I feel like he may be doing this illegally because we signed a lease for a specific amount, and it doesn't seem like it should matter who we fill the room with as long as his credit history is fine and he can pay rent. Please let me know if you have knowledge of CA rental laws.

Answer 1

Sounds legal to me.

But, check out a book, "Tenent's Rights" (or some such title) by Nolo Press at the booksore, library, or at www.nolo.com . They have a California-specific version that should address this *exact* situation.

Answer 2

the difficulty is what share every person is permitted on the unit? maximum municipalities and cities require a certificates of Occupancy, that's issued after a housing inspection. Did your employ state what share every person is permitted there? Is the employ in one individual's call, or various? If the leased states that an further deposit is needed for each individual, that looks legitimiate yet not the condominium advance (as you state, that's not in the employ). Technically what you're doing is subletting, and this could violate the employ. the difficulty could basically be resolved in court docket. you may declare an "unconscionable" advance in employ. the greater beneficial positioned on & tear isn't a valid reason to advance employ. on a similar time as Landlord-Tenant regulations are dictating by utilising the State regulation, cities and municipalities confirm what limits there are to increasing employ. each so often that's 10% a 300 and sixty 5 days, each so often there is not any decrease. you may refuse to pay the upward push and wait until the owner archives for court docket. or record a case yourselves. call the close by housing authority and inquire what limits there could be to condominium will advance. it ought to come all the way down to in spite of if or not you're violating the employ or the CofO, besides simply by fact the criminal limits to condominium will advance.

Answer 3

You signed a new lease agreement when you got a new roommate and the landlord has the right to adjust the cost of the new lease. The old least was terminated as soon as the new lease was signed.

Answer 4

here we go again, another slumlord sucking your wallet. unless it states on your lease that the landlord can charge you extra for a new roommate, and it must state the amount on your lease, he has no grounds for this. tell him to piss off. i also beleive that even after a year the landlord can not raise your rent more than twenty five to fifty dollars a year if he renews your lease. tell him you will see him in court and i bet your rent stays the same . i hope there is a special place in hell for these blood money sucking vampires.

Answer 5

He is acting as though you have invalidated your lease contract which had previously set your rent to a certain price.
A contract has to be renegotiated and signed by both the lessor and the lessee to be valid.
Reread your previous contract. If there is no mention of specific names to reside in the unit, then it should still be valid. Otherwise go to a government residential tenancy office and make inquiries.

Answer 6

I'm not sure about your specific situation, however I do know San Francisco does have rent control laws, check with the county rental board they should be able to advise you.

Answer 7

Look in Phone Directory for tenant-landlord office or wording to that effect, then call them for advice. It sounds unlawful to me.

Answer 8

definately check this out with the rental laws in California