State of California Renal Law

Question

I am a subtenant paying the master tenant $950 in a month-to-month rental. Master tenant is moving out. Originally we discussed becoming master tenants with landlord, payin gthe full $2000 a month and finding subtenants of our own. We never signed anything, just talked about this.

Now the landlord has told us (not served us with written notice) that he will be raising the rent to $2600 in October.

They are expecting us to pay $2000 for the month of Sept, though we never signed anything saying that we would.

We did work on the house for wich they agreed to compensate us only $100 though the work was worth way more.

Now that they say they are going to raise the rent we want

a) to only pay our $950 for the month of Sept (if we give notice, our last month's rent of $950 will be used for that month anyway).

b) to be better compensated for the work we did on the house

If they refuse to compensate us and we take them to small calims court for this work we did, does the land lord have to fly out here for the case or can he send a representative? And do we have a chance a winning such a case?

The work was assisting a hired electircian who would have hired an assistant, but we saved them money by lending a hand. If the electircian can testify to the amount out work was worth or the amount he would have paid someone else to do it, do we have a case?

Answer 1

Get a professional assessment and documentation of the actual work and value added to the house, then file a lien for that amount. This will give you leverage to negotiate staying longer at the old rent (unlikely) or being excused from having to pay the entire master rent through your departure date (very likely, as you're not responsible for it).