When a tenant gets sued in a California eviction action, an unlawful detainer, the tenant will often want to file a cross-complaint against the landlord for some issue relating to the tenancy. Unfortunately or fortunately, depending on how you look at it, unlawful detainers are summary proceedings. As summary proceedings, the court does not allow cross-complaints. Sometimes, however, tenants can seek affirmative relief through the use of certain affirmative defenses like breach of the warranty of habitability or retaliatory eviction. Those claims can even allow the tenant to recover their attorneys’ fees in certain circumstances.
Even though unlawful detainers are summary proceedings, there are procedural tools available to experienced unlawful detainer attorneys that can actually allow the tenant to not only prevail in the eviction but to obtain affirmative relief.
For more information or help with your unlawful detainer action, contact us at Schorr Law, APC, 310-954-1877, info@schorr-law.com, www.schorr-law.com
I’m being sued (UD Complaint) by my landlord and have the trial date set for next week. I’ve lost my job five months ago, had my car repossessed, and had to file bankruptcy. Every where I’ve turned for assitance or advice legally I’ve had doors slammed in my face. I’ve sought out every avenue I could think of to this point with little progress. All the legal paperwork I have had to handle myself. I have a ligitamate complaint ( a slip and fall in the shower he was suppose to resurface)against my landlord and he owes me monies for the remodling I did to his house( he has paid for none of it) and I know i have a case. But from what I’ve learned about UD complaints it seems like it’s sheep being lead to the slaughter for the tenents. I’m sure I even have a case for wrongful termination against the previous company for terminating me right when the slip and fall happened and I broke my ribs and couldn’t work for 6 weeks. So in short the automatic stay was lifed yesterday and it appears I have no more moves left; accept maybe filing with the court the Form Interrogatories? Which in and of itself sound terrifing after reading it! It’s looking pretty bleak for my circumstances at the moment. Any advice would be greatly appreaciated and thank you for your time.
My tenant has filed a cross complaint but I dismissed the Unlawful Detainer as soon as she filed saying that she gave up prossession voluntarily. I never evicted her, just did not renew her lease. She has said the most horrible things about me, but all of them are untrue.