What are my rights as far as withholding rent if my landlord isnt?
Disclaimer(s): I am not an attorney, so nothing I say should be taken as legal advice. My answers are based only on the information provided therefore additional information may fundamentally change my answers. Laws, rules, and regulations vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction you should not assume that my answers are correct for your area they are intended for informational purposes only. Q: What are my rights as far as withholding rent if my landlord isnt enforcing policies set forth on his end of the lease agreement? A: It depends on a lot of factors, one of which is your jurisdiction. In California, if your landlord isnt providing a habitable unit (meaning that it lacks things such as running water, heat, or has other habitability issues), and the problem is ongoing after a reasonable period of time (reasonable will depend on the situation and how long it has been that way), then you could legally fix the problem and deduct the cost of the repairs etc from the rent. In these situations, you should make sure that you have proof that you alerted the landlord to the problem (preferably more than once, and in writing), and that a reasonable amount of time had passed with no improvement before taking matters into your own hands. You will definitely want to provide a receipt for your costs to fix whatever the problem was. However, if youre talking about something like a noise complaint (for example) versus another neighbor, and you dont think the landlord is doing enough to fix it, youre probably not going to win in any legal action against the landlord. Despite the ultimate threat of eviction, landlords are not all powerful, and there is much that we cannot do - even if we sincerely want to help! If I had a dime for every time I heard someone claim that their landlord didnt do anything about it, Id have a lot of dimes. Its more likely that your landlord cant tell you what actions they have taken, and they definitely cant tell you the result(s) (or lack thereof) of those actions. Why? Because of privacy issues - you wouldnt want your neighbors to know the details of your tenancy and so your landlord cant tell you details about the other tenants you may have complained about either. As previously stated landlords have limited powers - we are not police, were not judges we cant just wave a magic wand and solve all your problems with your neighbors. So its not that we didnt do anything about it (whatever it is), its most likely a combination of not being able to do anything about it, and not being able to tell you what we have done or tried to do (or the results, if any). If you have already discussed this with your landlord more than once, and you still arent happy with where you live you should probably move instead of risking your credit score (and rental history) by withholding rent. Good luck!