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Rental Housing Advising
Our goal is to help you help
yourself to solve your rental problems.
This service is reserved
for UCSC students, staff, faculty, and the
landlords who rent to them. Situations
in which advising can be helpful include:
- Security
deposit disputes
- Rental agreement questions
- Maintenance and habitability issues
- Communication problems
- Privacy
rights
- Housemate vs. housemate disagreements
- 30-day notices
- 3-day notices
Consult this list of Frequently Asked Questions (PDF). If you cannot find the answer to your question, please complete the Advising Intake Form and a CRO adviser will contact you. CRO's advisers are not legal professionals and only offer basic informed guidance.
For time-sensitive
matters,
or if your question regards breaking
a lease,
please contact the appropriate qualified professional
directly. In the case of the latter, we advise
you speak with an attorney. Local free
and low-cost legal services and resources are
listed below:
California Rural
Legal Assistance (CRLA) office provides
free legal advice for low income tenants.
Many students qualify for their services.
Their number is (831) 688-6535. They will
ask you where the property is located, the
amount of rent you pay, and how much money
you make and, if you qualify, assign you
an adviser. In Santa Cruz County office drop-in hours are scheduled twice weekly. In Watsonville they are on Tuesday mornings from 8:30 to 11:00 and in Santa Cruz they are on Wednesday mornings from 8:30 to 11:00.
Lawyers Referral provides
an attorney familiar with tenant-landlord issues
to landlords and those who don't qualify
for CRLA for $40.00 for the first 1/2 hr. Any
additional time is negotiated on a "sliding
scale".
Their number is (831) 425-4755.
Conflict Resolution
Program offers
mediation services. For low and medium incomes,
fees can be negotiated on a “sliding
scale”. Call (831) 475-6117
Small Claims for Santa Cruz County is available online at their informational web page.
Consumer Affairs,
Santa Cruz division,
has a tenant-landlord informational web
page and voice mail informational
line. Call (831) 454-2128.
Consumer Affairs,
State of California, has
a comprehensive handbook entitled California
Tenants: A Guide to Residential Tenants and
Landlords Rights and Responsibilities (PDF).
Nolo Press provides free
landlord-tenant advice on their website
Community Rentals
Office Rental Forms and Resources
page includes a section on Rental Laws and Agreements
Some of the documents provided at this website are PDF files, which can be viewed with Adobe Reader. If you need the software, it's FREE! Just click on the image below.
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