My husband and I are homeowners on the East Coast, but are living in the Bay Area for a year. As such, we're renting a single family house in East Bay, having become tenants again for the first time in several years.
I am trying to figure out if we are being bamboozled by our landlord or not. Note: We are living in a 15+ year old house with all original appliances. Since we moved in, in October, we've had the following problems:
--Disposal broke
--Clothes dryer broke
--We had a huge ant infestation (thousands of ants)
--Combination light/fan on 2nd floor broke
--Water from torrential rains leaked under the kitchen door and damaged the wood floor while we were away for the weekend
We are responsible people and were not abusing or misusing any of the above when they each occurred (didn't leave food out to attract ants, etc). We promptly alerted our landlord in each case, but have been surprised at his reaction. To hear our landlord describe it, we are annoying him with all these issues, and he has said, "I don't want to be on the hook for every little thing that goes wrong. As far as I'm concerned, I rented to you, you agreed to maintain everything in the home and keep it all in good working order. I did you a favor by paying for the disposal and dryer repairs..." and then he has strongly hinted that he would not always pay for such repairs. This has come as a huge shock to us, particularly after he intimated that we would be responsible for replacing the 15-year old refrigerator if it broke, since it broke "on our watch."
Here's what our lease says:
"Tenants shall, at Tenant's own expense and at all times, maintain the Premises in good working order and repair, including all equipment, appliances, furniture, fixtures, and furnishings, and shall surrender the Premises at termination of this LEASE in as good condition as received, normal wear and tear excepted."
I would think that repairing/replacing aging appliances would fall under "normal wear and tear" (i.e. landlord's responsibility) and that's what my feeble Google searches seem to support as well, but I wanted to check with a community of folks who are more knowledgeable of such matters.
Is California renters laws just insanely different from Massachusetts law?* We were renters in MA for years and years, and every single one of the above items was uncontestably a landlord's responsibility.
I haven't pushed back on my landlord's annoyed demeanor, thinking that maybe I don't understand how renter's laws work out here, but since hearing him say that he thinks we should have to replace his refrigerator if it breaks, I've become much more interested in finding out what the law actually says on stuff like this.
Any advice, experience, or websites you folks can point me to, to better understand our rights?
Thanks!!
*I have looked up actual language of CA law and it is ambiguous. Other websites I have found have suggested that the way CA law tends to be interpreted in the courts is that the implied warranty of habitability extends to appliances included in the property - but I'm not sure if I should take the word of random websites I've been reading.