Extra Space vs Steve Zobel

NOTICE:
This blog has been reduced to a simple synopsis of the case.
Because of my mental disability which I'm pretty certain is post trauma stress disorder, this blog originally was very loud, angry and had a lot of emotional confusion which made it difficult to read and made a lot of people angry.
It complicated things rather than resolved them; and was the wrong way for me to have approached the situation.

These are the three complaints that I made.
1). I had urine poured into my unit by another tenant as revenge for his eviction because the live-on site manager caught him sleeping on the premises at night due to information I'd given her about him coming onto the premises just before 10:00 P.M. curfew, and apparently not leaving the grounds until the morning.
I believe the live-on site manager wasn't doing her nightime grounds checks or she would've caught him without my having to tell her about it. These grounds checks are apparently part of her job description.
(See footnotes 1. and 3.)


2). I feel that I'm being overcharged on rent. I pay $210. a month, and Extra Space Storage advertises the same size unit at the same location for $130. to $137. They have raised my rent twice in three years while at the same time advertising a nearly 40% lower rent online.
I feel this constitutes an unconsionable and unfair business practice because they have never offered me the lower rents.
(See footnote 2. Second para.)

3). I think I'm being denied service when I'm late with my rent. This appears to be in violation of California Code: Business & Professions. Section 21703
After  a tenant is six days late with rent, Extra Space Storage suspends the gate access from full access hours,  reducing it down to office hours. This reduces the access hours by more than half.
Normal gate hours are 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. 365 days a year.
Office hours are 9:30 to 6:00 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Office hours are 9:30 to 5:30 p.m. Saturday.
Office is closed all day Sunday.
This approximates 2.5 to 3.0 months of time that I feel I've paid for and not recieved service for.
(See footnote 2. First para.)

I paid my rent on Dec 16, 2009, Extra Space Storage then terminated my lease on Dec 17th. I paid the January rent which the manager accepted thereby cancelling the termination notice.
Extra Space then gave me a new termination notice, and when I tried to pay rent the manager refused a cash payment. I went online and paid the rent with my PayPal credit card. The rent was accepted, then the funds were returned to my account. I have a reciept fron my PayPal account which verifies this.
I believe the actions by Extra Space Storage are retaliatory because they refused to address or correct my three complaints; two of which may address possibly unlawful business practices by Extra Space.
I believe I had a legal right to make these complaints and to expect these issuues to be remedied. To date, Extra Space Storage has done nothing to address or correct the three issues that I complained about.

Extra Space Storage terminated my month to month lease citing the clause in my lease allowing them do do so. However I believe this action by Extra Space Storage was retaliatory, and was based on my complaints, my blog, and possibly because I'm homeless.

I feel that their second eviction notice and refusal of rent is an attempt to avoid the original issues. That they are trying to make it seem a simple case of my having breached contract by not paying rent, trying to make me a tresspasser rather than a tenant.
On January 22nd, Extra Space Storage cut the lock off my unit and locked me off the property, with nothing more than the clothes on my back, my sleeping bag, and my tablet computer. I do not think this was legal.
The duress this put me under produced such a state of mental anquish that I became mentally and emtionally disbalanced and suicidal.
I believe I'd made it clear to Extra Space Storage that I have severe mental health problems brought about by being sexually assaulted and nearly murdered in the last five and a half years of my being homeless. I think this should've amply evident to them by reading my original blog entries.
(These blog entries have been dropped, but remain in draft form and will be made available as needed.)
Those entries included links to three of my other blogs that describe my being sexually assaulted by my landlord http://loza-shoe-spot.blogspot.com/ five years ago, which is why I'm homeless. And the attack a little over a year ago by five punks that tried to murder me and videotape the killing.


FOOTNOTES:
Footnote 1.)
This is an excerpt from an email from someone who had worked for Extra Space Storage as a site manager.

I asked this question:
"Was it part of your job description, (or a verbal command given to you) to walk a 10 p.m. / night time closing grounds check to make sure everyone was off the grounds?"
This was her reply:
"It is part of the job description to make sure that everyone is off the property at closing. To make sure that lights are out and doors are closed. No one ever follows that, but it is part of the job. That is why resident managers were created. So they could be the security also."
The Extra Space Storage, on-site manager wasn't doing her night-time grounds checks, which is why she was unaware of that tenant sleeping on the grounds at night.

Footnote 2.)
This are excerpts from another email by that same ex-manager.
"California Law states that the code cannot be lock out until you are late for 30 days. Please remind them of this. They are unlawfully denying you access to your property."

"This company chooses to raise peoples rent after the 5th month of tenancy and then every 9 months after that. Even when the managers complain that they are the ones having to deal with the flack from angry tenants."

Footnote 3.) My original email complaint.
Last Sunday, October 25th, 2009 between 9:00 A.M. and 3:00 P.M. while I was not on the facility grounds, another tenant poured about a gallon of urine over the top door jamb of my storage unit #xxxx.

The urine poured down the inside of my door splashing on items nearest the door and then flowed out underneath my door and into the hallway. I have photos of the results.
That tenant blamed me because he was caught on site after hours.
For several weeks I'd observed this tenant entering the storage facility grounds as I was leaving just before the 10:00 P.M. gate lock-down. I would also see him in the morning leaving the grounds as I was entering.
One evening after I'd seen him enter just before 10:00 P.M. I watched the gate from a block away for about fifteen minutes and never saw him exit.
I told Ms. "S", your on-site live-in manager, that I'd observed this very obvious pattern, and that she apparently had a "sleeper" on site.
This other tenant had harassed me three times before the urine event by coming downstairs from his unit, walking down my hallway and swearing at me as he walked by my unit.
I didn't report the first two incidents because it seemed weird, rather than threatening, but I did report the third time to "B", the assistant manager, when he lurched towards me and yelled in my face; his spittle striking the right side of my nose and cheek.Your manager apparently knew that tenant was angry at me because she told me on Sunday after the urine event, that he'd blamed me for getting caught. But Ms."S" didn't tell me this, so I had no warning that he might do something against me.
The harassment and urine events would not have happened had Ms."S", your on-site live-in manager been doing her 10:00 P.M. security grounds checks. And if she'd been reviewing her computer gate log in the mornings, she'd have seen him logging on site just before 10:00 P.M. gate lock-down, and not leaving.
This tenant was being so obvious that he was practically waving a red flag in your on-site live-in manager's face. She would have caught him very easily. She should not have needed a tenant to tell her she had a sleeper. Not if she was doing her job right.
Having another tenant harass me and pour urine into my unit is a gross violation of my covenant of quiet enjoyment: California Civil Code. Section 1927.
I am clearly owed some form of compensation for this gross episode. I think that some months of free rent is reasonable.
Speaking of rent, I see the on-line price for a 10 x10 unit like mine at this same facility is $130.00 to $137.00. Yet I have been paying $210.00 for some time now.*
I have been a tenant for nearly three years, and right now I am a very unhappy tenant.
Sincerely,
Steve Zobel
*This rent thing may be legal, but it raises ethical questions, and it stinks!