Category: Renting and Tenant Rights

A home that sits in a special flood hazard area, designated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, should have flood insurance before a loan can be produced on the house. If you don’t think your home is at risk of flooding, you may have the ability to get it rezoned out of a flood plain–and eliminate the necessity to carry flood insurance in combination with your mortgage.

Maintain your flood insurance coverage. Until you are able to prove that your home has been rezoned, the lender will continue to need flood insurance on your home, and may buy a policy and charge you for it should you cancel your current policy.

Contact a surveyor to perform an elevation certification. According to FEMA, the contractor completing the certificate has to be a certified land surveyor or a registered professional engineer in order for the document to qualify for consideration. The surveyor will inspect the structure and compare the location and elevation of the home to the flood plain requirements to decide whether your home stays over the risk area.

Submit an application for a Letter of Map Amendment to FEMA as soon as you’ve received an altitude certificate showing your home to be above the flood plain. It is possible to submit the application either electronically through FEMA’s eLOMA program or by sending in FEMA application package MT-1 or MT-EZ.

Wait for FEMA to evaluate your application. Depending on workflow and other factors, the agency can take six to eight weeks to assess your data and issue a decision. Remember that during that time, you should still carry flood insurance.

Supply your lender with documentation of FEMA’s approval of your application, and it will no longer be obligated to require flood insurance attached to your mortgage. If FEMA approves your application, you will be issued an official Letter of Map Amendment, which efficiently rezones your home out of a flood plain.

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The state of California has some of the very stringent tenancy laws in the United States. Both landlords and tenants have certain basic rights and duties guaranteed by state legislation, irrespective of whether the lease agreement defines them. Landlords specifically must adhere to these duties while screening and leasing to tenants within the area. In return, landlords are afforded specific rights, to which tenants have a responsibility to oblige.

Timely Consideration

In exchange for leasing a property to the tenant, the landlord is eligible to receive rental payments on time and in full each month. A landlord may charge a reasonable fee (“reasonable” determined on a case-by-case foundation ) for late rental payments or bounced/returned obligations, given the lease defines these provisions.

Performance by the Lease

A landlord has a right to expect that the tenant to do under the conditions of the lease, and the tenant has an obligation to the same. The renter must abide by any rules or limitations set out in the lease agreement. If a tenant violates the lease in some manner, the landlord reserves the right to evict the tenant.

Appropriate Notice

Whenever the tenant discovers a problem inside the unit that requires repair, he must notify the landlord promptly. The landlord has the right to receive notice of damages, defects or other problems as the renter finds or causes them. If the renter does not provide adequate notice, he can’t hold it against the landlord for failing to repair the problem. The landlord can also be entitled to remuneration from the tenant if the tenant willfully or carelessly causes the harm.

Proper Maintenance

The landlord must keep the habitability of the house for the duration of the lease by completing necessary repairs and maintenance. Under California tenancy law, every lease arrangement –written or oral–provides each renter an implied warranty of habitability, and the landlord can’t discount or force the landlord to waive that assurance. It’s the landlord’s sole responsibility to ensure the continued habitability of the house, and a tenant can terminate the lease without penalty when the landlord fails to do so.

Prompt Repairs

Assuming the renter provides appropriate notice, the landlord must complete all repairs promptly and correctly. The landlord is liable for the costs of any repairs, replacements or work the house needs, unless the tenant caused the harm directly. If a landlord refuses to complete repairs, or does not finish repairs in a satisfactory manner, California law permits the landlord to withhold rent payments and utilize the funds to finish the repairs himself or to employ a qualified contractor to finish the job.

Unbiased Practices

Every landlord has a responsibility to comply with California’s tenancy discrimination laws. A landlord can’t refuse to lease a unit to a potential tenant using ethnicity, skin color, sex, age, religion, disability or familial status as a standard. Any screening procedure a landlord uses has to be applied”across the board”; landlords cannot selectively decide to display different applicants employing different criteria.

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A legal tool used for the conveyance of real property is a deed. There are several standard types of deeds, among which will be the quitclaim deed. Deeds has to possess a grantor and a grantee and must be in writing. The grantor conveys the interest in the property.

Identification

The quitclaim deed offers no guarantees or covenants; hence, of all deeds, it provides the least amount of protection to the grantee. A deed, with warranties and covenants, guarantees that the grantor has clear title in the property to be conveyed. In a quitclaim deed, the grantor is communicating interest, if any, in the land to the grantee. Another name for the quitclaim deed is that the release deed.

Features

The quitclaim deed conveys the interest that the grantor may have in the real property in the issuance of the deed. If the grantor doesn’t have any interest in the house at that moment, but later obtains interest in the house, the quitclaim deed issued earlier does not transfer this fresh interest in the land to the grantee.

Function

The most typical use of this quitclaim deed would be to transfer land from one family member to another, such as a parent moving the family home into a child, a family member relinquishing a possible inheritance, or a soon to become ex-spouse relinquishing a claim into property owned by a spouse. Other common uses of this quitclaim deed comprise clearing clouds title, releasing equitable title by a buyer when canceling a purchase, and if conveying ownership of a less than fee-simple estate.

Benefits

Sometimes, quitclaim deeds are an attempt to shield property from possible lawsuits or other legal activities. In this instance, the house owner may quitclaim the house to a close friend or family member with the intent of regaining the house or investment in the future.

Warning

The quitclaim deed doesn’t necessarily grant land name to the grantee. It simply conveys any interest the grantor”may have” in the house. As an instance, if Mr. Brown provides a quitclaim deed for his friend for the White House, this just means he’s giving the friend any interest he may have in the house. If Mr. Brown has no interest in the White House, then the quitclaim deed is of no value to the friend.

Misconceptions

Since quitclaim deeds are a quick way to transfer interest in real property, some erroneously refer to this deed as a”quick claim.” Still another reason for the mistake is the similarity in the sound of the phrases quit and quick.

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You’ve got the right to sue your landlord when he’s unjustly withholding your safety deposit, then refusing to refund for money spent on apartment improvement or not returning extra cash out of rental calculation errors. Typically, your situation can be handled in tiny claims court for only a minimal fee. While small claims court requires a lesser burden of proof than other courts, you must still adequately prepare for the lawsuit. If you neglect ’t even understand how to correctly sue a landlord, you could end up losing what you believed could be an airtight case.

Check the local state statutes to make sure that you are seeking financial restitution in the maximum limits for small claims court. If your situation is above those limitations, then it will be thrown out of court, you’ll lose your initial filing fee and you’ll still must refile the case in a district court or circuit court. Every state’s small claims court has a different limit. For instance, California allows individuals to sue for around $7,500 in tiny claims court.

Assemble appropriate evidence. After having a landlord in tiny claims court, evidence could include canceled rent checks, photos of the premises, a rental arrangement or other similar documentation. Candidates should be supplied as evidence to corroborate verbal agreements; otherwise, these agreements might not hold up under the courtroom 's scrutiny.

File an official lawsuit with the court, paying the applicable fee. In most areas, the fee for filing a tiny claims lawsuit increases determined by how much money you’re trying to find from the plaintiff. The fee, however, is generally not over $100. The paperwork needed for filing lawsuit is found at the courtroom, and it needs a fundamental description of their complaint in addition to proper identification, such as a driver’s license or passport.

Consult a lawyer beforehand if you’re seeking several thousand bucks ' worth of compensation. Lawyers often charge high hourly rates for consultations, so it might not be worth seeking legal advice if the lawsuit is simply for a couple of hundred bucks. Remember that lawyers can be consulted in advance of the court date, however according to the state of California, a lawyer is not allowed to represent you at the actual court proceeding. Small claims court is intended to litigate arguments civilly between two individuals; it is not a full scale trial, and so, lawyers are not allowed.

Prepare your arguments beforehand on note cards or even a sheet of newspaper, making sure to strike key points quickly. Both you and the landlord will be given chances to speak and introduce evidence; then you’re allowed quick answers to this landlord’s statements and evidence. However, these disagreements should remain brief, along with the estimate may cut you off if you don’t get to some points right away. Additionally, make sure that you adhere to the difficulties. Cite verbal agreements, specific passages from the rental along with other pertinent info. Should you make derogatory, irrelevant comments concerning the landlord, then you risk sounding bitter and not very credible.

Show up on time, together with all your evidence organized, and make sure you’re well groomed. While these minor pieces of common court etiquette might appear unimportant, they can make a difference in establishing your credibility and character.

Conduct yourself peacefully yet. When suing a landlord, things can get heated, but be certain to keep your cool.

Await your case’s choice patiently. A tiny claims lawsuit is not necessarily given an immediate ruling. You might have to await the estimate ’s choice to arrive in your mailbox weeks later. If this is the case, don’t too call the judge’s office or the courtroom clerk. Politely asking for a estimated time-frame is okay, but repeated calls may seem impolite and laborious.

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Even one of the country 's biggest advocates for animals, the Humane Society of america, understands why some landlords refuse to accept pets. Landlords have an obvious financial interest in safeguarding their properties. Since the Humane Society notes, irresponsible pet owners might have burnt a landlord one too many times, prompting her to adopt a”no pets allowed” policy. Without a doubt, you narrow the number of units accessible for youpersonally, but renting and pet ownership aren’t like oil and water.

Fine-tune your apartment search. The world wide web has revolutionized the way people search for apartments. Sites like Craigslist, Rent.com and SFGate.com’s own rental page allow you to exclude apartments from the search that do not accept pets. This is a wonderful feature because there is nothing worse than finding the seemingly perfect listing, only to find the”no pets allowed” disclaimer.

Ask about. The Humane Society recommends contacting their local chapter or other groups concerned about animals to see if they have a listing of pet-friendly rentals.

Read flat advertisements carefully. Some landlords may take cats but not dogs. Call it discrimination, but many men and women view meowing cats as docile comparative to biting dogs. In the bottom of most Craigslist flat advertisements, as an instance, you will notice a notation pertaining to the landlord’s respective cat and pet coverage.

Ask about other types of creatures. Perhaps you have a lizard, fish or pet tarantula. Most men and women consider cats and dogs in association. Your landlord might be fine with less cellular creatures.

Bring your pet as you flat search. Some landlords will undo their coverage in certain situations, particularly if you can convince them that your animal is harmless. Ask former landlords for reference letters vouching for your pet’s good behavior. The Humane Society advises procuring a letter from the veterinarian too, showing that you’re at the top of your pet’s health needs. This could put an landlord at ease.

Tell the truth. If you lease an apartment, which usually includes signing a legally binding lease, then sneak a pet in against a”no pets” edict, you’re asking for trouble. Not only are you going to be accountable for any damages, but because you violated the terms of your lease–supposing the pet clause has been listed in ityour landlord might be able to evict you in the flat.

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