Tenant rights?

I live in an apartment in Southern California. Can anyone tell me the rights that I have regarding harassment by my landlord? She has always been in everyone's business but recently started telling me that my guests have been at my house too much. She beat on my front door last night upset because my boyfriend didn't answer the door the other night when she came to the door (I was not home and he was in the bedroom asleep). She also accepted a delivery of flowers for my birthday when I wasn't there and then threw them on my doorstep and destroyed them. Last night when she came to my apartment she was yelling at me for the mess that she left on my doorstep. (It had already been cleaned up... and I hadn't even been aware that she was the one who destroyed my flowers until that point). What are my rights?

Tenant rights?
As a tenant you have the right to occupy the premises in a comfortable manner. She is clearly violating the lease and it could be broken. See if you can get a free session with a lawyer.





California is a lot stricter than other states on employee and tenants rights. I would definitely take this to a lawyer. At the very least you could have our lease declared broken and move out without any penalties.


Best of luck to you!
Reply:Just move.
Reply:You have a lot of rights! BUT, most of it is based on your contract. She cannot just stop by at anytime, she needs to give you a minimum of 24 hours notice.





Taking anything that belongs to you is illegal and is not really a tenant right, but a theft issue. But it sounds like you are in an apartment complex so that is a sticky issue when mail is involved I guess.





When she signed the lease over to you, she gave you the occupancy rights to the property. She can't do anything on the property without notice, and even then it has to be "fair". You can google the exact stuff online, but I didn't want to get into the legal mumbo jumbo.





The one thing you need to be careful of is usually there is usually a clause in the contract that guests can't stay for more than 48-72 hours, therefore if your boyfriend stays there a lot, she could have clause to evict you. To actually evict someone is a long and tough process, and you can try and fight it, which would by you time (months), where you can stay at the property and she can't do anything about it. The police can't physically take you out, until the court tells them, and that can take months, but lets hope it doesn't come to that.





If she is in your personal business, I would just ignore her. It would be the same as if your neighbor was in your business, but once she takes things (flowers) and you have proof, you can call the police.





Anything you say to her, you should put in writting for proof. Good luck!