From: Jeannie 
Newsgroups: misc.consumers.house
Subject: Re: Three days notice to pay rent or quit
Date: Sat, 10 Jan 2004 02:14:02 GMT

> Happy holidays to all.
> 
> I got back from the holidays on January 4th after a nice visit with my
> folks who live out-of-state.  I paid rent that night via the drop box
> at my apartment complex (which will not take a post dated check).
> 
> They refused the check because it was late.  Rent is due on the 3rd.
> 
> My check came back in an envelope taped to my door.  I found it on
> January 5th after work.  It warned of a "Three Days Notice to Pay
> Rent or Quit" letter to follow if rent wasn't paid the next day by
> 9:00 am.
> 
> So I booked it over to the office and argued about the holiday spirit
> for a while, asked for some leniency.  They wanted nothing of it.  I
> went back home, grabbed my checkbook and returned to find the office
> closed.  So I dropped rent+late fee into the drop box.
> 
> The second check came back sometime yesterday - January 7th - this time 
> rolled up in the door jam.  They want a cashier's check.  It also had a 
> three days notice to pay or quit letter (as promised).
> 
> Is this normal?
> 
> I'm new to this complex.  I've rented since August 2003.  I'm getting
> threats of being charged $500.00 attorney fees, eviction, all sorts
> of crazy stuff.  I've got a squeeky clean rental history and a nice
> big fat credit rating score.  So what's up??
> 
> I'm wary now.  I signed some discounted rent agreement.  They say
> I'm getting $150.00 discount and that I will be charged the full
> rent (retroactively) if I do not abide by the terms of the lease.
> Did I just break the terms?
> 
> What a nightmare.  This is in California by the way.  Las Flores 
> apartment complex.
> 
> Any help or advice would be appreciated.
> Thanks,
> Brian

In response to the OP...

This is completely normal.  The rental office may not have been "nice," 
but it acted completely according to the law and, most likely, your 
rental agreement.

I've rented in different situations in California, a room in a private 
home, a small apartment complex where the manager lives just about next 
door, and large complex with a rental office and professional management 
company.  In the first two situations, I've gotten some leniency 
regarding late rent.  In the last (large apartment complex), everything 
was strictly by the books.  I was late with rent one time, due to a 
hectic life, and they served me a "pay or vacate" notice with lots of 
legal threats.  This was quite a shock, since I had a spotless record 
with this apartment.  I paid as soon as I could, along with the late 
fees, but I also wrote an angry letter to the rental management, 
complaining about the cold and impersonal way in which I was notified. 
They called back in response to the letter, telling me that they were 
under legal obligation to serve such a notice and any other "nice" way 
of informing me of a late rent, such as  telephone, would be considered 
harassment.

I believe that 99% of the large, upscale apartments in my area (Southern 
California) behave exactly the same way.  There are no "niceness" 
benefits that include leniency for late rent.  The staff in these types 
of places have to answer to some bigger corporation, at the end of the 
month.

Yes, that seems to be inconsistent with all the other "nice" 
"happy-happy" activities they promote, but that's how large apartments 
work.  *Some* private landlords *may* choose to be "nice" if they wanted 
to be, but no landlord is under any legal obligation to do so.  It is a 
business, after all.  Being nice would probably get them into more 
trouble, because by the time they had to get down to business and evict 
a true low-life, they would hear complaints about "but you treated 
so-and-so in such a way..."  "but you did such-and-such last month..."

It doesn't make sense sometimes, in relation to the management's other 
behavior.  In my case, I got very-last minute notices that they would be 
doing X maintenance work *tomorrow*, so I wouldn't have water the 
*whole* day.  Or, it would take several days and several calls to the 
rental office to get a certain problem fixed.  But, you still have to 
pay rent on time.  On the other hand, the way you deal with this 
incongruity is to move and to tell them about their poor service.

If you want to look up California Law, see:
http://www.dca.ca.gov/legal/landlordbook/terminations.htm


-- 
Jeannie
E-mail: jeannie at talisweb dot see oh em
Web: http://www.moonflour.com