Another year at the current rent, but only if the lease says so

Question: We have a one-year lease on a town home with an option to renew for another year. This is indicated in the lease. Can I assume it means the landlord cannot raise the rent if we stay an additional year?

Answer: You can assume that if your lease provides for a one-year extension on the same terms and conditions in your current lease.

Leases often include provisions for rent increases at their terminations. However, that’s not always the case. Check your lease carefully for such a clause specifying a dollar or percentage increase. Also, look for an automatic inflation rent adjustment paragraph, which is also often included in lieu of specific increase amounts or percentages.

Even if there is no rent adjustment clause in the lease, you still are not necessarily off the hook. Your lease may just give the right to negotiate a new one with the terms not yet set.

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By law, weekend is same as a holiday

Question: In an article printed Nov. 4, you wrote: “Rent due on the first of the month is only due on the first if it is a regular banking business day (Monday through Friday). If the rent due date falls on a weekend or holiday, it kicks over to the next banking business day.� Please tell me the source of this information, since I can’t find it.

Answer: This provision of law is found in California Civil Code Section 11. It says, “Whenever any act of a secular nature, other than a work of necessity or mercy, is appointed by law or contract to be performed on a particular day [such as rent due on the first of the month], which day falls on a holiday, it may be performed upon the next business day, with the same effect as if it had been performed on the day appointed.�

That covers recognized holidays, but what about weekends? They are also defined as holidays in the state Civil Code and the state Civil Code of Procedure. Sundays are defined as holidays by California Civil Code Section 7 and the Civil Code of Procedure Section 10, while Section 12a of the Code of Procedure includes Saturdays as holidays.

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Is cleaning-fee provision legal?

Question: I met with my landlord to renew my lease, and I saw that he had added this statement under additional terms: “$250 of security deposit is not refundable to tenant at time of moving out for cleaning.� I thought that for a landlord to deduct cleaning expenses from a deposit, he had to show an itemized list of actual damage (excluding normal wear and tear) justifying such costs. I also thought that by leaving the apartment as clean as it was when I first moved in, I could avoid these fees altogether. He says his new rule applies to all tenants in his complex.

Faced with the prospect of being homeless and trying to find another apartment on short notice, I signed the lease. Is such a stipulation in a lease legal?

Answer: This is an illegal lease provision. California law requires that all residential rental security deposits be fully refundable, which does not necessarily mean they will be. It means they may be refunded. The owner can always withhold deposit money for unpaid rent, damage and cleaning unless the lease or rental agreement says otherwise.

The owner cannot withhold money from the deposit if he does not incur any of these expenses.

Since you are probably going to live in the apartment until this new lease expires, there is no personal benefit to you for educating the owner about this yet. Although it may be beneficial to new tenants, it may engender hard feelings between you and the owner for the rest of your stay. I would wait until I moved out to have this discussion with him.

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Kevin Postema is the editor of Apartment Age magazine, a publication of the Apartment Assn. of Greater Los Angeles. Send comments to [email protected], or mail them to Apartment Age, 621 S. Westmoreland Ave., L.A., CA 90005.