I was on disability leave from my employer, and not paid for over six weeks, in October 2013, by my employer and its authorized disability insurance payor due to errors on their part. This caused me to be unable to pay my rent for October 2013. However, I, my employer, as well as the disability insurance payor, notified my landlord, verbally and in writing, that the error was being corrected and that I would receive my full disability pay---as well as back pay for those six weeks, and that I would continue to have a regular income from disability thereafter, which would allow me to fully pay any back-rent owed , as well as future rent. I also qualified for, and received, a one-time emergency rental payment to cover my back-rent for October 2013.
In spite of all these efforts, the landlord refused to work with me, which would have allowed me to stay in my apartment. I was subsequently evicted, and due to my disability, was unable to process all the paperwork necessary [to respond to the unlawful detainer] within the three days (during which I needed to respond to the unlawful detainer) to go to court.
The unlawful detainer was served on a Thursday evening, and the court only allows five days to respond (as I found out when I was told, by the court clerk, that I had missed the "response time-frame" window by one day), and weekends ARE included as part of the five days (this is true, despite the fact that courts are ONLY open Monday through Friday, and most [including the Alameda County Hayward Superior Court, where I was required to go] have extremely shortened court hours and reduced staff Monday through Friday, due to ongoing and recession-era budget cuts). In reality only three days were available to me, to figure out how to respond to an unlawful detainer, acquire the correct "response" paperwork, and return to the CORRECT court ,with the CORRECT documentation. [Both the Alameda County and California State Judicial websites are complex and difficult to navigate, so the process of responding to an unlawful detainer if mysterious at best.] [The Judicial Commission which makes and decides the "Court Rules" which the Court must follow, is extremely conservative and has not, nor do they propose to, make any changes to the Court rules which dictate how "defendants" must "respond" to Unlawful Detainers, despite studies which have shown repeatedly that, in the Bay Area at least, landlords use the power of their hired attornies to obfuscate the court process for "defendants" being served with "Unlawful Detainers".
In addition, the landlord receieved a full rental payment from the emergency rental assistance services, but returned the check,un-cashed.
Subsequently, I was evicted and forced to move in January 2013. I have since had difficulty obtaining a rental. I have had to "couch-surf" with family and friends since then.
In addition, due to my disability, I had to hire a cleaning service to clean the apartment, and those areas difficult for me to clean [due to my disability]. However, I never received my deposit, nor any notice regarding it, nor did I receive any information regarding the month of October rental payment [which my landlord refused and returned unpaid to the emergency rental assistance organization which had helped me].
In addition, due to my disability, I had to hire a moving company to move my household goods into storage, when I was evicted in January 2013.