LANDLORD - TENANT DISPUTES AND THE POLICE

[Music] [Music] What the What the hell are you doing here again? Where's my door? This is my apartment. Can I do anything I want to do here? Anytime. Your door I took down for a few days. You get the mud out, you get the door back or you both go out. Look, you schmuck. I pay my rent here. That's my apartment. If you won't give me a bag of my door and get your itchy pants out of here, maybe the police will convince you to. Good. Call the police. They'll tell you about a lease. They will. No dogs in the lease. Oh, some monkey has changed the damn lock on my door. Know anything about that, Milin? I know all about that. You pay the rent, you get back in. Not before. Why you lousy flea bag will just [Music] Hey, she's calling her hand. Let them handle it. Maybe they can find my TV as well. Huh? But Henry, that's that dumb huge broke our living room window. I saw him. He had a rock in his hand. He threw it right in the window. Oh, there he is. What are you, some nut or something? What's this destruction you're doing? You fix my toilet. You ain't seen any extended destruction. [Music] The role of the police officer is becoming so complex today that he is required to deal with all areas of human conflict, including those between landlords and tenants. Although the usual practice of the police has been to regard such conflicts as civil only, the fact is that very often penal code violations are involved. The Oakland Police Department, aware of this problem, has responded by setting up a special landlord tenant intervention unit. The purpose of this unit is to help the parties find lasting solutions to their problems, thereby avoiding the occurrence of violence or the necessity for arrests. How you doing? Good to see you again. Pull up a chair. [Applause] Sure. Glad you guys were assigned to this section. I I can guarantee you that you'll find it interesting. Just what does the landlord tenant unit do? Well, as you know, a lot of the guys in the department have trouble handling landlord tenant thiefs. So, we set the unit up to learn how to handle them better. good results according to our statistics. You know, it's such a weird area. When you answer one of these calls, you're thrown into the situation like a volleyball. Boy, I'll never forget the first call I had. That was before we set the unit up. How did it start? Well, I think it started when the landlord bought the building. But seriously, let me give you a little background to it. [Music] Hey, Doug. Uh, you better turn your radio down a little. We'll have a visit from our noisy little friends over there. probably so much in when they do put chlorine in which once every six months it becomes a natural green. Talk about nosy landlords. The other day I was taking a shower and when I got out of the bathroom, who do you think I found snooping around my apartment? I couldn't believe it. Said he came to fix a leak in my faucet. I didn't even know it had a leak. Uh, like it was very low. Man, I'd clobber that clown if I caught him snooping around in my place. Maybe I'm lucky though. All he ever does to me is bug me for the lousy rent. I'm only 6 days behind and he's already bugged me three times. Uh, Mr. Travis, when are you going to pay me the rent for this month? Cheap creep. He knows I've been laid off my job, man. He must think I'm just lying around on my rear freeloading. God, he makes me mad. You don't even know what mad is. Ever since I moved into this rat hole, I've had something wrong with my toilet. At first, it either ate everything down with one big swallow or threw it all up in two seconds. For a while there, it was nothing else but a race between the toilet overflowing and my getting a bucket. Who won? Take a guess. Um, this may be a stupid question, but uh, why don't you tell Cuddles over there about it? You're right. It is a stupid question. I did tell him, but he never fixed it. And then finally, about two weeks ago, it broke altogether. Not only doesn't it swallow anymore, it won't even throw up. He's got to be kidding. With the youth, the portable John in my camper. Oh, come on. You can let that smoke get away without fixing your head. Well, what else can I do, man? I mean, how often can I bug him? I do more than bug him. There must be something you can do. What? I've got a great idea. Yeah. Listen to this. Okay. [Laughter] Will you look at him? Look at him. I sweat. I break my back for years to get enough money to buy this apartment house. And then what do I get stuck with? What I get stuck with is bums. I get stuck with bums. Look at them. Oh god. Here he goes again. Henry, please. Please don't get excited. Do you know that it's no good for you when you work yourself up like this? Well, at least something around here is working. Take a look at that. Doug, Travis, 6 weeks out of work, 7 days behind of the rent. He's looking for a job. No, he's not looking for a job. He's looking for a suntan. And Andrea Baker, three times I tell her, no dogs. The lease don't allow no dogs. Ever since she said that, the whole place stinks. little piles every place I go. Henry, but I I I can't understand why you should Why should it be this way? You should see the rubs in her apartment. So, six weeks ago, I say get rid of the mud or move. 6 weeks later, here she is. And you know what she did? What? Alice, you know what she did? She laughed at me. She laughed at me, Alice. Well, did it ever occur to you, Henry, that maybe if you were just a little bit nicer that they would cooperate more? Nicer? That's nicer, nicer. Last month, nicely. I say to Robin Miller, she's the one in 2A with no lease. That's the apartment I want to give your mother when she comes to stay with us. You know what she says to me? What she says to me is when I find a nicer apartment, I'll move 5 weeks later. There she is. What's she finding? She's finding a son. That's what she's finding. You know, Henry, that Ted Stone is a nice fella. You know, he always says hello whenever I pass him at the pool. That's because he's always at the pool. Aerospace engineer. Well, maybe it ain't his fault he can't get a job here. But Ellis, you can't live on unemployment insurance forever. Last month, two weeks of the rent I didn't get. You know what he says to me this morning? You know what he said to me this morning? What he said to me this morning is I'm going to be two weeks late with this month's rent. That's what he said to me. So, how can he afford to buy that new color TV set he brought home? Oh, goodness sakes, Henry. Have a heart. You know, the guy's had it very hard. Do you know that his wife left him because he wasn't working? Well, the guy gets depressed. So, maybe that TV show depressed. Depressed? I should be so depressed. I drink beer. What are those bums drinking? I'll show them they can't walk all over. Henry, what are you going to do? I'm going to get rid of these leeches once and for all. That's what I'm going to do. Hello, electric company. I'm Henry Melin. I'm at 7804 Grove Avenue. I own that apartment house. I want you to come by and shut off the the electricity in apartment 10. Yes, it's an emergency. That'll get rid of that Robin Milton. Maybe if she can't see your apartment, she won't think it's so nice. Huh? Yeah. Yeah, I authorize it. Right. Thank you, Henry. You can't do that. I just did it, didn't I? Bums. God, Henry, I I that that look, I don't like that look. Hello, Ace Locksmith. My name is Henry Malcolm. I'm at 7804 Grove Avenue. I own the building. I want you should come by and change the lock on apartment 7. 10 minutes. Fine. Thank you, Henry. That's Duck Travis's apartment. You can't lock him out like that. He's got all his clothes and everything in there. So, let him stand around in a swimsuit all day. Maybe he'll come by and pay the rent. If he doesn't, he buzzes out. Whose side are you on anyway? We ain't running the charity home for bums. Bums? You see my toolbox? It's over there in the in the cabinet. What do you want to do with it? What I want it is, and let's take the door off Andrea Baker's apartment for a couple of days. That'll air the place out. Maybe I'll get rid of her in the month, too. What do you know? Alice, let go of that box or I'll throw you out, too. Clear off this table. That's where our new color TV set goes. Ted Stones, I figure that's what he owes. Hey, everybody. How about lunch at my place? Hey. Yeah, sure. Good. You guys go ahead and change and meet me in my pup in about 5 minutes. Okay. Terrific. You're on. But first, first we've got to execute Don's plan against our landlord. Okay. I know. I may need this later. No way. [Music] Oh yeah. [Music] What? What the hell am I doing here again? Where's my door? What I'm doing here is this is my apartment. I do anything I want to do here. Your door I took down for a few days. Get rid of the mut, you get the door back or else you both get out. Look, you schmuck. I pay the rent here and this is my apartment. If you won't give me back my door and get your itchy pants out of here, I mean the police will convince you to call the police. Yes, I've got to do that. No dogs in the lease. They tell you some has changed the damn lock on my door. You know anything about that, Milin? I know all about that. Uh-huh. You pay your rent, you get back in. Not before. Why? You lousy flea bag. We'll just see about contact the police. Yeah. Listen, she's call the police. Let them worry about it. And maybe they can find my TV, too. Huh? You can find your TV when you pay your rent. Henry, not now. Henry, but Tom Hughes just broke our living room window. I saw him. He picked up a rock and he threw it right into the god. There he is. There he is. What are you, some nut or something? What's this destruction you're doing? You fixed my toilet. You ain't seen the extent of destruction. I've lived in this rattle six months. Well, that's it. I told you it was an incredible situation. You're not kidding. A real circus. You know, Sarge, using that situation might be a good way to show these guys how our landlord tenant unit works. We could show them how we really handled the situation before the unit was set up and how we would handle it now that the unit's been set up. Good idea. Let's see. We got to the call and then we tried to quiet all the parties down. We listened to the tenants gripes and then to the landlords. We explained to them that it was really a civil matter, that the most we could do was take a crime report on Mr. Melin for the lockout, the seizure of the TV, and so on. Then we told them to see the city prosecutor or private lawyer. Then we left. And that's just the point. I mean, we really didn't resolve the beef. When we left, the tenants were still a matter in hell, and the landlord wouldn't budge an inch himself. How many times have you guys had to come back and scrape one off the floor and haul the other one off to jail? Well, what is the solution? How does a landlord tenant unit handle these beefs? Well, it's really pretty simple. If you take some time to learn some of the civil and criminal laws in the landlord tenant area, and wait a second, Bob, we're not lawyers. We're cops. No kidding. I'm not asking you guys to go to law school just to learn some basic legal issues. For example, a landlord like Malcolm will usually get pretty steamed up when he thinks his tenants are walking all over him. Now, when we answered that call instead of referring them to the city attorney or telling him that it was a civil matter, we could probably have prevented the free-for-all that happened later on if we explained some of the legal issues to them. You know, with that under your belts, it could prevent you from later on having to go back and investigate a battery. Well, what is the law? Look, instead of me sounding like a law, professor, let me explain to you the way we'd handle that call on Grove Street now that the landlord tenant program is in effect. $400. Is there an Andrea Baker here? I'm officer. I wanted to help him. I just came in from the pool and I found his my landlord slipping along my apartment. My lonely daddy took a door of my apartment. She's not the only one, officer. They locked me out of my place just cuz I'm a few days late with the rent. Can you let me back in? What's your name? My name is Henry Melin. I own this apartment house and I want them bums out of here. Listen you, I pay my rent and neither you nor anybody else is going to tell me where to go. He shut my electricity off. Can you believe it? That guy mashed our living room. Holden. Look, the two of us can't help anyone do anything unless we all calm down and discuss matters rationally. Bob, I'll take these people downstairs to the other unit. Why don't you talk to Mr. Meltin inside here? Maybe don't talk. Maybe we'll get going. Let's go. Creeps. Bums. Get him out of here. I want all those bums out of here. Mr. milk and evidently your tenants feel as though you've been harassing them. Is that true? H you and my wife. What's wrong with what I did? Plenty. You just can't trespass in this woman's apartment, snooping around and bothering her. I ain't trespassing. I own the building, don't I? You may own the building, sir, but that doesn't give you the right to annoy tenants. When a tenant rents an apartment from you, the tenant has a property interest in the apartment. You can't invade it by trespassing unless you have a valid reason. And annoying a tenant isn't a valid reason. Do you know that it's a misdemeanor to trespass in your tenants's apartment? No. Hey, are you threatening me? No, sir. I'm just trying to point out to you that you may be violating the law with what you're trying to do. What's more, you can't just remove the door to Miss Baker's apartment in order to get her to move out. If she wanted to, Miss Baker could have us take a crime report on you for malicious mischief for removing her door. And I bet the next thing you're going to tell me is I violated some law by locking that pin brain out of his apartment or taking the TV set for the rent Ted Stone owns me. That's exactly what I'm going to tell you. It's a misdemeanor criminal offense to lock someone out of his apartment like that. It's also a misdemeanor to take someone's property without a court order. You've got lots of protection from irresponsible tenants. All you need to get is the court's help. What court? I ain't got 5 years to sit around and wait for some court to help me. I mean, I ain't got any money to throw away on a lawyer. You may not need a lawyer, sir. And it doesn't take 5 years. You may be able to get a tenant evicted in from 3 to 7 weeks. You sure about that? Yes. The best legal way to evict a tenant is by bringing a civil court action. It's called an unlawful detainer action. You just can't take the law into your own hands. Unlawful detainer. The first thing you have to do to evict a tenant is give him what's called a 3-day notice. For example, if he's late with the rent, you send him a notice telling him that he has to pay the rent within 3 days or move. And that's the unlawful retainer. Detainer? No. If he doesn't pay up or move within 3 days, then you bring in the unlawful detainer action. Oh, do I bring it to you? No, you have to bring the action in court. Either small claims or municipal court. I see. But now, what about this Robin Milton? She's on monthtomonth. I want her to move out so my mother-in-law can have that apartment. So, I sent her a written notice. She ignored me. So, I shut her electricity off. Well, you started out the right way by giving her the notice. But, it's against the city ordinance to cut off a person's electricity. Just remember, when you have a tenant living here on a month-to-month basis without a lease, you can always get him to vacate by giving him 30 days written notice. If he's still around after 30 days or up, you have to go to municipal court and and bring an unlawful detainer action. Right. Just don't take the law into your own hands. Even though you need a lawyer's help in municipal court, you can usually get a tenant out in 3 weeks. 3 weeks, huh? I guess that's worth the price of a lawyer. All right, I'll get busy putting the door back on this apartment. And don't forget to give the TV back either. Wait a second, Bob, before you go on. I'm a little confused. What's the difference in the eviction law between a tenant who has a lease and one who doesn't? Okay, let me run through it again. The points Officer Crawford should stress are these. There are two basic types of rental agreements. The written lease and the month-to-month tenency, which is often made by verbal agreement. Both are legally binding. A tenant who has a lease cannot be legally evicted for the period of the lease as long as he complies with his terms. If the tenant has violated a provision of the lease or the month-to-month rental agreement, the landlord can give the tenant a written 3-day notice to correct the violation or move. If the tenant ignores this notice, the landlord can begin court action to have him evicted. Such a proceeding is called an unlawful detainer action. If the tenant has a lease, the landlord should get an attorney and bring his unlawful detainer action in municipal court. Very often, a tenant can be evicted in less than 3 weeks. If the tenant has a month-to-month rental agreement and the property is residential, the landlord can bring his unlawful detainer action in small claims court without the aid of an attorney because that court does not permit parties to be represented by attorneys. However, most landlords have found that an unlawful detainer action can be settled more quickly in the municipal court because of the lengthy appeal procedure in the small claims court. Officers should also be aware that a landlord has the right to terminate a month-to-month teny for almost any reason, even if the tenant has not violated any provisions of the rental agreement. To do this, the landlord must first serve the tenant with a written notice to vacate in 30 days. If the tenant fails to move after the 30-day period has passed, then the landlord can bring an unlawful detainer action against the tenant in municipal court. Well, that clears things up for me. Oh, one more thing. If a landlord has a claim that he can bring in small claims court, what does he have to do? It's simple. He just goes to the small claims clerk at the courthouse and they can provide him with all the papers he'll need. Great. We still have one more problem with the situation that Bob presented, though. What about the window smasher with a broken toilet? Unless we resolve that particular dispute, Mr. Milin just might not have any more windows in his apartment. How would you have handled that problem? Well, first we'd calm the landlord down. Then I'd talk to the tenant about his problem. Why did you smash your landlord's window, Mr. Houston? Landlord? That creep is nothing but a cheap miser. Ever since I've moved into my apartment, I've had problems with a toilet. Finally, about 3 weeks ago, it broke altogether. He tells me I just don't know how to use it. But meanwhile, it's broken. Well, I finally decided to do something about it. Look, Mr. Hughes, you can't go around destroying other people's property just because you're frustrated. Now, we've calmed Mr. Milin down, and he doesn't want to sign a complaint against you. Just don't let this happen again. You know, there are legal ways that you can solve your problem. Oh, yeah. That's right. State law requires landlords to keep apartments in good repair and fit for humans to live in. Well, maybe he doesn't need a toilet that works. But I sure as hell do. What can I do about it? If he doesn't cooperate with you when you tell him about the problem, you should send him a written notice for the defect in your apartment. If he ignores this, then there are a few things you can do. First, you should go to the Department of Building and Safety or the Health Department. They'll come out, inspect the premises, then send the landlord a letter ordering him to make repairs. Well, that sounds great, but isn't there any way I can get it done quicker? Sure, there is. You can do it yourself. Hey, now wait a minute. Why should I have to pay for having the toilet paper? Hold it. Hold it. No, you don't really have to pay for it yourself. The law allows you to make repairs, then deduct the cost of the repair from the next month's rent. This is provided that the total cost of repair does not exceed one month's rent. You mean that's all I have to do is have the toilet repaired and deduct the bill from my rent? Yes. Provided that you give the landlord written notice of the defect in your apartment and your intention to deduct the cost of the repair from the rent. Of course, there's another thing that you can do, too. What's that? Move out. Yeah, I can't. I have a lease. That doesn't matter if the landlord fails to repair the defect and it interferes with the use of your apartment. You can move out even though you have a lease and you can't be held responsible for the rent. This is called a constructive eviction. No kidding. The state and local housing codes require a landlord to maintain his rental facilities in good condition. In addition, the landlord cannot wave this requirement by placing the burden of major repairs on the tenant as part of the conditions of the lease. It is the obligation of the landlord to provide an apartment that has a structure that is weatherproof, waterproof, and rodent proof, a workable plumbing system, one working toilet, bathtub, and bathroom sink. one working kitchen sink, adequate heating facilities, safe electrical wiring, and adequate garbage and trash storage and removal facilities. When a tenant discovers a defective facility in his apartment, he should give the landlord written notice of the defects. If he receives no response from the landlord within a reasonable period of time, the tenant should consider one, reporting the defective condition to the housing authorities or health department. two, having the defect repaired himself and deducting the amount of the repair from his next month's rent, or three, moving out of the apartment. If the tenant decides to move, he can do so whether or not he has a lease, and he will not be responsible for any further rent. Officers should be aware that some California courts have held that tenants have an implied warranty from their landlords that the apartments they rent are completely habitable. Therefore, if a defect is discovered and the landlord refuses to repair it, these recent decisions may allow a tenant to withhold the rent until the landlord repairs the defect. Officers should caution tenants, however, that they should get the help of an attorney before they decide to withhold their rent in this way. Hey, thanks for the advice. I'm going to split now and write Mr. Milin a little note about having my toilet fixed. Good luck, Mr. Hughes. And just remember one thing. Please don't break any more windows. Well, that's about all the law you guys need to know to handle most landlord tenant thiefs. It'll also help me handle my own landlord. You know, I'm curious what ever happened to poor old Mr. Melin. You know, it's funny you asked that. About 5 weeks after that first call, I saw him on the streets. Seems that he kept putting so much pressure on those tenants that they all moved out. By then, his wife was so poed, Adam, that she split, too. So, now he's stuck with five vacant apartments. No, only four. His mother-in-law moved into the other one. [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music]