Tenant Rights in Lakeport, California
Lakeport, California, tenants have legal rights to their home, even though they're only renting it. Lakeport is a "general law" city where the rules are based on California law, so the state rules for renters define your rights. Those include the right to privacy, the right to a livable home and protection from arbitrary eviction.
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Discrimination
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California law bans landlords in Lakeport and elsewhere from discriminating against you because of any characteristic not relevant to their business needs. The California Department of Community Affairs (DCA) states that this includes race, color, religion, gender, pregnancy, marital status, disability, sexual orientation or the source of your income. Discrimination covers not only refusing to rent to you, but also charging higher rents, renting you substandard or segregated housing, harassing you or refusing to make reasonable changes in the rules to accommodate your disability.
Habitability
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Your Lakeport rental must be "fit for occupation by human beings," in the words of the DCA. These terms aren't defined precisely, but they include having working locks on the doors, working utilities, a roof that doesn't leak and the vermin population under control. The landlord can't evade this responsibility even if the lease says otherwise. If the lease makes the tenant responsible for repairs, for instance, it has to offer a reduction in rent or something equivalent in return.
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Privacy
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You have the right to tell your Lakeport landlord to stay out of your apartment or rental home, except in specific circumstances, the DCA states. Those include emergencies, making agreed-on repairs, when he's showing your unit to prospective tenants and if you're having a water bed installed and he wants to supervise. Emergencies aside, you're entitled to written advance notification of the landlord entering your property, and it has to be within regular business hours rather than, say, 10:30 p.m.
Evictions
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If you're renting in Lakeport on a month-to-month basis, the landlord has to give you at least 30 days notice if he wants to end the rental. That drops to three days in some circumstances -- such as if you don't pay the rent, you damage the property, you assault another tenant or you're dealing drugs out of your rental, all of which are also reasons for terminating a lease. If the problem is one you can fix, such as catching up on back rent, your landlord has to give you a chance to do so. Evicting you as payback -- because you reported him for discrimination, for instance -- is strictly illegal.
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