My landlord just emailed us for the 10000000th time about some recycling violations (not us, we break down our boxes etc) and said they will pass on the violation fee to all of the tenants. I'm trying to find something written indicating this is illegal - it is, right? help me school this fucking ghoul, plz. thanks!
edit: I found this but it's from 2017 and not sure if it's only referring to NY - https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/17/realestate/landlord-bill-tenants-for-city-fines.html
I can help -- it almost certainly will come down to the language in your lease agreement. If the lease is written you should review it to see if (and how) it addresses fines. If there's a provision stating that any fines will be passed on to you as a tenant you will have difficulty fighting back.
If it is not addressed in the lease then you're in a different position.
Fighting back is always going to be a measure of who can tolerate the legal process, however. And unlawful detainer actions are pretty awful in California.
Feel free to message me with any specific questions (or just reply here) if I can help further
so we scoured the lease last night to find statements that support the fact that collective punishment is not okay - it had a lot of statements basically saying you're responsible for what you/your guests do. I feel like that should work? Will look again for anything fine related. Thank you so much for your help, hopefully I won't need to bug you about it again :/
That sounds good and no problem
I wouldn't expect there to be anything prohibiting this in the lease. Rather, I would expect the lease either allows this or is silent on this issue. If it is silent then you can (and should) argue that your obligations begin and end with the lease between you and the landlord
I'm happy to review the lease if there's a way to get it to me without doxing yourself (through message or other means) to provide more concrete help