I am going to explain my situation and am in need of advice.....
I have lived in my apartment for 11+ years with no problems until the last tenant who was moved in above me...the tenants had animals (ie rabbits, and various other animals) living on their back porch, when they would clean up after the animals they would dump chemicals onto our grass (we have a backyard) which in turn was killing our grass. We then told our manager that this was happening, she in turn did nothing. We then proceeded to contact the housing authority who told us to turn the tenant into the health department, in turn the owner was served some sort of paper. Needless to say the tenants moved on their own accord. The manager had told us they were moving due to the fact they couldnt afford the rent. The next set of tenants moved in and have been nothing but a NIGHTMARE...I realize that we do live in a family complex and you can expect some sort of noise from the other tenants in the building....but these tenants are vaccuming at nite and in the early morning (ie after 10 pm and before 7 am)
We have taken that complaint to the manager and we had a sitdown meeting with the tenants and manager and myself and my mother to try to resolve the situation...well at the meeting the tenant suggested that when they were making too much noise to call her and she would fix the situation. Since the meeting about 2 months ago we have contacted the tenants approximately 5 times about the noise (which consisted of the vaccuming at all hours of the nite and loud music playing at all hours and children running on the floor after 10 pm). The last straw was Christmas eve when I contacted them at 12 am to ask them to stop running the vaccum cleaner as my mother and other occupants in our apartment were sleeping, the lady proceeded to scream at me and tell me that this is a family complex and she cant live her life on my time. I let it go and contacted my apartment manager on tuesday of this week and requested another sitdown meeting with her, myself and the other tenant....she told me at that time she would arrange the meeting and would inform the other tenant of the rules regarding noise. Needless to say I woke yesterday morning to find out we were given a notice to terminate tenancy and when I asked why she said that the owner feels no matter who he puts above me that there will be problems. Im not understanding how a owner can ask us to move for complaining and our complaints are valid complaints.
If you have any information that might help me please let me know what I can do legally to remedy the situation as I am on social security disability and my mother is on social security and we can NOT afford an attorney or to move.
We currently live in San Bernardino County not a city if that helps.

California is hard on landlords. But the rents are harder on the tenants. You might look here for help.

http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/selfhelp/other/landtenlinks.htm

It is my opinion that this might be too late for the old cookie and appology routine. At least they are vacuming, which means that they keep a clean house. I had one person in an appartment under me that would use great amounts of curry in their cooking. (I think it was dog with the hair still on) To this day, I cannot handle that smell. :rolleyes:

I once rented a house next to the Railroad tracks. We would wake up when the train was late!

Good luck.

a landlord as no legal obligation to state a reason to terminate tenancy.....if you are unhappy with every new tenant then maybe you should move......

Everyone is correct, a landlord has no legal obligation to state a reason to terminate you tenancy once your lease has expired and you are now renting month-to-month. However, you may be able to string out your stay for an additional month or two, and even receive some type of monetary compensation IF YOU CAN PROVE "Landlord Retaliation".

If you did indeed receive a "Notice to Terminate Tenancy" and NOT an Eviction Notice, you can buy additional time by NOT moving on the requested move-out date. Do not alert your landlord of your intent. Make sure you pay your rent, but do so through the nightly deposit box or slide it underneath or tack your the landlords front door [in an envelope of course]. If the landlord refuses to accept your rent, keep the funds in a savings account in case you are required to prove to the court that you had the ability to pay your rent.

Then just sit and wait...wait for what you ask? Well, the inevitable "Eviction Notice" that your landlord MUST FILE and SERVE in order to get you out of the apartment of course. Once you receive the Eviction Notice you will have 10 days to "file a response". Do not file your response until that final 10th day, unless the 10th day falls on a weekend, in which case you must file your response on Friday. Keep your response brief and to the point. You are filing a response due to "Landlord Retaliation" whereas your landlord kicked you out because you lodged valid complaints with The Housing Authority and The Health Department because on-site management failed to remedy situations as spelled out in the apartment rules and guidelines.

Taking this course of action may extend your stay an additional 30-days or more. After that, before your court date, file an extension--but you need to come up with a really good reason... some type of medical or financial hardship situation may grant you another 15 or 30-days.

Once you get to court, have all your ducks in a row. Copies of emails, detailed account, witnesses, etc. Prove to the court that you never had any alike happenings in entire 11-years while renting your apartment. And that the OWNER is kicking you out of your home in retaliation due to your reports to the Housing Authority and Health Department.

Alas, all the above antics will never allow you to stay unless the Owner finds the whole mess too much hassle, or doesn't want to spend the money on eviction procedures or other related cost. All this will do is buy you some time to consider all alternatives.

In closing, just for future information, vacuuming at night and in the early morning (i.e., after 10 pm and before 7 am) is not unusual whatsoever. And when people choose to live in a downstairs apartment, you're gonna hear people walking and running overhead. That's simply the nature of apartment living.

Good luck,
Yoko Ono