Housing Laws

You can sue your landlord in civil court if the landlord or someone acting on his/her behalf (an “agent”) breaks this law. There are two different categories of money (“damages”) that you can sue for:

1. “Actual damages” is money to repay you for any losses or injuries you had.
2. “Statutory damages” is an amount of money between $100 and $5,000 that the law says the judge can give.¹

However, whether or not the judge can give you statutory damages depends on the proof of abuse that you gave your landlord. The judge cannot give statutory damages if you only gave the landlord “any other form of documentation that reasonably verifies that one of the qualifying crimes occurred.” This means that you can only file for statutory damages if you gave your landlord one of the following as proof of the abuse:

• a restraining or protective order;
• a police report; or
• a letter from a qualified third party, such as a counselor, case worker, psychologist, doctor, etc.² 

¹ Cal.Civ.Code § 1946.7(k)
² Cal.Civ.Code § 1946.7(k)(2)(B)