Can I Take Legal Action Against My Apartment Complex? (California)
landlord tenant attorney California Aug 6, 2026
Location: Los Angeles, CA Hi, this is my first apartment so honestly I’m not sure what rights I have. I live in a “Co-Living Apartment” inside of a complex with mostly loft studios, and 2-3 bedroom apartments, but they have around 5 4-bedrooms they rent out as co-living. Individuals rent out 1 of the 4 rooms, and share a common space (kitchen, living room, and balcony). I signed a 13 month lease starting February 1st. I got 4 months half off for signing 13-months, and a 1500 credit for applying within 48 hours of touring, I pay 1600 a month, and they ended up giving me 5 months half off (i’m not sure why they gave the 5th, it might’ve been on accident but they never asked me to pay the other half), so basically 3.5 months for free. Roommate history: from February to the end of May I had 1 roommate, June I was alone, July I had 1 roommate, August I have 2 roommates. MY ISSUE: Repeatedly I have not been given 24 hours notice when anybody is entering my apartment. For the first 2 months I was living here, I never got a single notice when they were entering. They came in for a few maintenance related issues with no notice, cleaners came in with no notice (they didn’t tell me cleaners would ever come in when I signed my lease), but the most insane one, they gave someone a tour of the apartment without telling me. I was sitting at my desk and hear multiple voices none of which I recognized. At the time I only had 1 roommate, who only brought people over 3 times in the time she lived here. I believe after the tour I talked to my roommate, she was given notice, and then I talked to my building. After that, I started getting notices, but it was rarely 24 hours notice. For some maintenance stuff I didn’t super mind, but when they were trying to give tours with 10 minutes notice I started getting fed up. Tours was the biggest issue until July for the most part, just a lot of tours with genuinely 10 minutes notice, and when I said I was uncomfortable with that, they did it anyways and basically said they’re just giving me a courtesy but they’re not obligated to, and can give tours without my consent or giving notice as long as they’re not entering my room. Those aren’t the exact words they used, but not too far off. On June 30th, 9:08am, I got a text roughly saying “hey just a quick update, somebody is moving in today around 10:30am, we’d appreciate it if you could clean up the common space before she gets here.” ???? genuinely what are you talking about. Before this, and after I talked to them the 1st time, I had mentioned 1 other time I would like more notice, and I can’t remember if this was before or after this incident, but at one point I tried to draw a hard line requiring 24 hours notice, which they basically told me wasn’t going to happen. After they told me this, I said I once again, I need more notice, so they told me “I hear you, and be assured, we will improve our communication… Just to give you a heads up, another tenant will be moving in tomorrow around 12pm”. When my 1st roomate moved out at the end of may, she left me with fleas. She has 2 cats, which had fleas, she did not inform me , everybody says fleas don’t bite humans but the genuine 100+ flea bites across my legs tend to disagree. It was a nightmare getting the fleas under control, the apartment sent pest control twice, they did not spray in any of the bedrooms either of those times. So when they said 2 people were moving in, I asked them if they disclosed that there are fleas to the new tenants, to which they said no. 1 of the tenants had a cat. She moved into a different co-living unit. The other roommate didn’t have any pets, but was not informed. Twice during the first 2 weeks of July, the apartment sent pest control in (now that people wanted to move in, it’s an issue all the sudden). Neither time was I informed. I woke up to a knock on my bedroom door both times. I open my door to see one of the leasing office staff, and a pest control worker, telling me I need to exit the apartment for the next 4 hours. What the fuck. A new tenant moved in at the start of this month. I was told at 3:38 on July 28th a new tenant would be moving in around 12pm on July 29th. Better, but still not 24 hours. I have mentioned this 3 times over text, 1 time in person. Last night they had maintenance come in to fix our in-unit dryer (which has been broken for the last 3 weeks). They did not tell me at all that someone would be coming in. Today I said I appreciate it finally getting fixed but I cannot accept the constant and repeated lack of communication, and scheduled a meeting with them when I got home from work. I just got done talking with them, and their attitude was still “we are not obligated to give you notice if we are not entering your room”. The common space is the real grey area I guess? I don’t know if it falls under the same laws as my bedroom does. On one hand the common space is shared by 3 people right now, up to 4. It’s not private. But, it’s not a public lobby, I pay for access to it as apart of my lease. They should still be legally required to give me notice, right? I can post some screenshots of texts if I need to, I have receipts for some of this stuff, not all, but I still think it’s enough to show this is a clear pattern. TL/DR: My apartment complex has repeatedly entered my apartment with less than 24 hours (or no) notice. They justify it by saying they’re not required to inform me when entering the common space, only when they enter my bedroom.
