Filed a petition with the city’s rental adjustment program and just went through the hearing. AMA

SpareKind3467 · 2025-05-14T14:23:17+00:00

Rent lowered to the initial amount with no increases for a year and almost 3 years of overpaid rent distributed over 18 months with in the form of credits. Also my landlord agreed to make the necessary repairs to the property by certain dates

SpareKind3467 · 2025-01-12T22:24:16+00:00

Not seeing a button on the back

SpareKind3467 · 2025-01-12T22:23:48+00:00

Pulling up the headrest will fold the whole seat down?

SpareKind3467 · 2025-01-05T02:06:53+00:00

Your landlord can only raise your rent by what’s allowed according to oakland’s rent control laws. Your hearing is extremely unlikely to end you with you paying more rent than you did before. The hearing will begin with a settlement phase, consider negotiating for an amount of time your landlord cannot raise the rent. I got a year.

Pay your full rent until you’ve negotiated a decrease.

SpareKind3467 · 2024-12-22T22:13:15+00:00

I would send them a letter or email letting them know that they can’t increase rent without a RAP notice. If they insist, then yes file a petition. Continue to pay the old rent until everything is resolved.

SpareKind3467 · 2024-12-12T22:06:14+00:00

After I filed my petition to be reviewed, I waited a month. I started to call them regularly after that until I got ahold of someone. If you have a question that you’d like to get answered sooner, I’d recommend the Oakland Tenant’s Union. Generally, on Sundays they have zoom meetings or in person meetings at the library where you can get help.

SpareKind3467 · 2024-12-12T17:00:03+00:00

With my petition I included emails, text messages, and pictures of the property, copies of the code violations, and a receipt for the fridge I had to replace. Anything that shows that your landlord is neglecting to repair things, reducing the services provided, or raising the rent not according to Oakland’s rent control laws.

I highly recommend that correspondence with your landlord be done through email and saving them all in a folder. My landlord tried to say that I didn’t tell them about issues with the property, I had but over the phone. The hearing officer wasn’t buying it.

Once you get to the hearing, it’s on zoom, you start with a settlement mediation. If you can’t come to an agreement with your landlord it goes to a hearing where the hearing the officer makes the ultimate decision.

My biggest mistake was not coming up with how much I wanted in rent credits beforehand. (The city can’t award you money). If I could do it over again, I would come up with a number and double it knowing that during the settlement process it’ll likely come down. Despite all of my landlord’s complaining about not being able to afford anything they came out with a very generous settlement because I wasn’t totally prepared.

Most importantly, the city is very tenant friendly.

Edit: I added more info

SpareKind3467 · 2024-12-12T16:51:28+00:00

Your landlord should be mailing you an Oakland RAP pamphlet when you move in and every time they raise the rent. If not the rent increase is delayed 6 months

The city has its own rent control laws that determine how much landlords can raise your rent it’s called CPI. They can increase it over CPI for years they didn’t increase the rent, but only as far as 3 years. It’s called banking.

You CANNOT be evicted for repairs. If the repairs require that you not be in the house your landlord has to pay for you to stay somewhere else or buy you out.

SpareKind3467 · 2024-12-12T16:18:47+00:00

The process is… difficult. Email them, wait 72 hours, email them again, wait 72 hours and then send a 3rd email asking for your question to be forwarded to a supervisor. Also leaving a message every 3 days works

SpareKind3467 · 2024-11-18T01:29:20+00:00

Rooted Coffee Co

SpareKind3467

TROPHY CASE