I have a complicated set of issues with my rental apartment and I'm wondering if this is a decent landscape (and letter) for getting started resolving them? How do I maximize my power in asking for reasonable things?
I live in a rent-controlled apartment in San Francisco and I've been here for 25+ years. My downstairs neighbors are multigenerational and have had the unit for longer. They are both 2BR units and I use one of the bedrooms as my office/studio. Unless otherwise mentioned, everything I describe has been unchanged for well over 10 years. tl;dr: my profile links to Pastebin with a letter I'm preparing to send.
Background: one of the downstairs neighbors has been a problem (the whole family really, but usually only behind closed doors). He attacked other neighbors years ago, when he also threatened me verbally. When he was growing up (I moved in when he was maybe 7-10) there were insane fights I wish I had recorded. Daily fights between him and...everybody, or everybody and everybody, basically a bad temper cauldron. It was bad for years and years and I should have called CPS at the time, but I rationalized my inaction as cultural sensitivity (tolerance paradox, and they are immigrants). As the most Americanized one, he would yell all the time, slam doors, and rattle the building with h large-engined Camaro, doing burnouts down the street. The family still carrie on their daily lives loudly and with children running around with the windows open. Anyway, he is older and has a toddler now; there are 5 people down there including grandparents, he and his wife, and the child.
When I live there full time I have to go to the library during the day to get any work done. I have PTSD-ish issues with bullies that makes this worse. I am in therapy and medicated partially as a result of all this, as well as it affecting my ability (to focus) on getting a job. I can't afford to move. There is also a snoring issue from them that they have refused to do anything about and which played a role in my being fired from a job in 2012 (couldn't sleep). I can't afford to move, and I don't think tenants can decide to have a child and disrupt peoples' lives without recourse. The landlord might be prohibited from doing anything, but I'm not the landlord.
OK, that's hopefully enough background. I realize certain swaths of this happened long ago, but their effects live on.
A month ago they started complaining to the landlord about noise from my office, which is a bedroom in our identical floorplans, from a PC in my closet that has been powered on 24 hours a day for going on 20 years. The landlord suggested some rubber pads under it to mitigate, and I have done that. I semi-scientifically measured the noise at ~20dB, which is about the level of a whisper.
I have been taking care of my mom most of my time these days and haven't been in the apartment much, but over the holidays I did spend a couple of nights there. Both times my downstairs neighbors called the police with noise complaints, the first time at 2am, the second at 9am. I invited the police in to see for themselves, and they were really just doing their jobs and left without incident or orders or anything like that.
This is unacceptable, and this is where we stand with the office issue right now. I've been thinking it might be harrassment.
There are also updates and repairs I need. New kitchen counters and cabinets (I have received with no problems new cheapo appliances when they've worn out in the past), some pest and fire-escape access issues (perhaps the most legally significant) and wear and tear stuff like floors, carpet that has been here as long as me, etc. My grand plan is that I talk to the LL about these repairs and updates, and I get a voice in it. I'd love to get a figure for how much they want to spend and then I go get something I like, adding my own money if necessary (co-operative allowance). There is also the idea of capital improvements, where they update with decent stuff and pass the costs through, raising my rent. I'm amenable to this, within limits. Last choice is just to go with whatever and be happy that I can have people over without feeling like I live in a hovel. Wait, that's not true. Last choice is to start wearing hard-soled shoes all the time.
I would like to be able to find a way to force the landlord to deal with the sound issues. I have read tons and tons about STC and IIC and what number we probably have right now and what numbers they should be. I am not sure that there's been any construction that would trigger a building inspection that could force that issue, but I'm willing to find on in my unit (there is a pest problem that could be termites).
Of course, being a rent-controlled building, these problems are predictably due to bad insulation and construction where they aren't due to the behavior of jerks. My sense is that the neighbors want me to fix that situation instead of the landlords, whose ultimate responsibility it is. Things are definitely below building code, but my sense is that there hasn't been any construction in the building that would trigger an inspection.
I'm willing to find a lawyer to really put the screws to all of these issues, but money is somewhat of a concern. Ideally I find precedence or knowledge in the law that I can use, saving a lawyer for the hard parts. For instance, SF law holds that a landlord can raise the rent of a rent-controlled building to market rates when the name on the lease changes, such as when a generational unit passes to the next family member. I want to make sure that happens! I have lines into the Tenant's Union, the Tenant's Rights Committee, and the Rent Board, and none of them have had much more advice than to keep a log of problems and notice if I'm in fear for my life (I realize a lot of people have much worse situations!). |
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