Yet another atmospheric river is set to hit California, lasting into Thanksgiving.
It’s coming on the heels of last week’s record-breaking rain, which hit the North Bay the hardest, where mountain areas saw more than 20 inches. The foot of rain that fell in downtown Santa Rosa was a 1,000-year event, according to the National Weather Service
Local officials are getting ready for strong winds to bring down trees and power lines and are recommending residents to prepare their homes as well. Read our guide on how protect yourself and your home against winter storms.
Some good news: If you are a tenant and your home has experienced damages, California requires that your landlord provides repairs as soon as possible, regardless of whether you have a formal lease contract or not.
The bad news: For some tenants, it could be difficult to contact your landlord or make sure they move quickly to make the repairs your home needs.
KQED spoke to Leah Simon-Weisberg, legal director for tenants rights group Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE), to better understand what rights tenants have during and after winter storms and how best to communicate with your landlord.
Jump straight to:
- What do I do if my landlord isn’t responding?
- The damage is very serious and I don’t think we can keep living here (at least for now). What can we do?
- How does my situation change if I don’t have a lease?
- What about my belongings — and what does renters insurance even cover?
- Can I apply for FEMA aid?
Storm damage: When and how should I report it?
Regardless of where you live in California, tenants are protected by a health and safety code (PDF) in the state’s housing law that lays out how a home should be maintained.
This regulation requires landlords to ensure their properties have things like working toilets and sinks, but it also prohibits homes from having walls, ceilings and floors that are deteriorating or damaged, along with leaks, mold and lack of heating. “Those are all things that have impacts on people’s health and are not considered lawful in California,” said Simon-Weisberg.
If you believe the conditions in your home have become unsafe after the storms and your life could be in danger, leave the house immediately and call 911, said Simon-Weisberg.
After that, call your landlord and explain the situation. She specifies you should only call 911 in extreme circumstances — your roof has fallen in, for example — echoing what San Francisco officials have advised the public about when to call 911: during 2023’s storms, Fire Chief Jeanine Nicholson asked city residents to only call 911 when there are life-threatening emergencies. “So if you have a little bit of flooding in your home, call 311. If someone is having a heart attack or if someone is being swept by water, call 911,” she said.
But if it’s something smaller, Simon-Weisberg said, “something you can contain with towels or a pot, call your landlord” — not 911.
How should I talk to my landlord about flood damage?
“I really want to encourage people to have the courage to call their landlords,” Simon-Weisberg said, adding that it’s understandable that some tenants may feel nervous about these conversations, especially if they do not have a lease contract — or are afraid of some sort of ramification for speaking up.
“First off, it’s against the law to retaliate against a tenant for speaking about repairs,” she said. “A landlord is always responsible for maintaining a unit so that it is healthy and safe for the tenant.”
These tenant protections apply even if you currently do not have a written lease contract. California recognizes verbal agreements (PDF), and property owners cannot use damages caused by the storm as an excuse to evict tenants. “Once the landlord has accepted a dollar for rent, then you have a tenancy and [tenants] can’t be evicted without using the legal process,” Simon-Weisberg said.
Once you are ready to contact your landlord, keep in mind that a phone call works — but it’s best to accompany such a call with written communication, like email or text message, to have a record of what you talked about. In that written correspondence, make sure to include photos of the damage, the time it occurred and details on your personal belongings that may also have been damaged. ACCE has created a sample email that shows one way to document when you contacted your landlord.
As these storms have shown us, water can do an incredible amount of damage very quickly — so make it clear to your landlord that repairs are urgently needed.
“The sooner someone is in there to make repairs,” Simon-Weisberg said, “the safer you are and the less damage that’s going to happen both to where you’re living, but also to your belongings.”
I’m having problems getting my landlord to make repairs
What to do if your landlord pushes back and refuses to fix the damage caused by a storm?
In some instances, Simon-Weisberg said, landlords do push back and argue that it is not their responsibility to make repairs, claiming a natural disaster exemption. She rejects this argument and affirms that “what we’re experiencing right now is not a natural disaster.” The natural disaster exemption can only be used when a natural phenomenon, like an earthquake or a tsunami, affects all houses in a city or region.