We have been living at this rental for over 2 years and never late on payment we were faced with a terrible matter in the first month which was bedbugs and had to go the er for information as we did not know what was happening but we still paid our rent and stuck it out then when we started seeing all the unhealthy issues and he was asked to correct it he stated it would not happen unless he raised the rent. We exercised our rights and he did not comply with the Code Enforcement but served us a rent increase. Then he was knocking on the door while i was showering and he went to the backdoor and started coming in. Then in 11/30/12 was the 1st day we had no hot water. Found out through CPUC that they spoke to him and they stated that "You and the previous tennants of 1403 have had there hot water portion of their PGE paid for by the tennat at 1401,There is no shared utilities mentioned in our contract and we have paid $ 2,000 in utilities for services we did not use.Our hot water heater does not supply the hot water to our unit and the owner knew this when he presented the contract.
Regarding the condition of the premises, tenants allege that "On or about September 1,2010, to the present, numerous defective and dangerous conditions were in existence, including, but not limited to leaking of sewage from the bathroom plumbing; black mold, defective and dangerous electrical wiring; structural weaknesses in the walls; cockroach and bedbug infestation; falling asbestos ceiling; hot water not from units water heater (neighbors) corroded pipes and piping hot water from next door through attic making place unbearable as well as dangerous conditions. These defective conditions were unknown to tenants at the time they moved in to the premises, but as they continued to live on the premises, they became increasingly aware of them." So for 1 month we withheld rent as we had to shower elsewhere and in January still no work was done to correct the issue.Owner retaliates because we exercised our rights by contacting code enforcement. Filed a UD and then we answered it with affiramitive defenses 1.habitability2,retaliation eviction3.breach of contract. Lost the court case and are now homeless.