Landlord Question and Answer Forum

tenant installed a phone line

My tenant of two years just vacated our property. All has gone well, except that she is trying to get us to pay for a phone line that she had installed on the property about 8 months in to her tenancy. When she asked us to install this, she indicated that she just got a new job and she needed a fax line put in. I told her that we are not required to provide her a fax line. She installed it herself via the phone company and that was that. Now that she is moved out, she is trying to claim that we are required to pay for this phone line, because the home had none when she moved in. As far as I understand, "The landlord is required to provide a line for the phone, but the landlords failure to do so does not violate the implied warranty of habitability." What is the best thing to do? Let her take me to court and have her prove that the home was uninhabitable until which time she got the line in? Or simply let it ride and pay her once i am actually presented a bill?

As far as I know in California - telephone lines are not part of the implied warranty of habitibility. Then it would depend on what your lease says; if your lease is silent on this, then I do not believe your past tenant has a leg to stand on.

Posted by Denise S, PA on Wednesday, October 07, 2009