Yep they can charge you for food oder. Anything that is considered beyond normal wear and tear can be billed or charged to you. It may not be worth it for you to get legal help, since its such a small money amount that you are talking about. Good Luck!

Food odor is a subjective charge. Meaning that there is no real way to prove that a food odor exist, and if there’s no proof then they shouldn’t be able to claim the cost. (in my opinion) I manage a smaller 20 plex building and in the last 15 years I’ve never charged a tenant for food odor. Probably a new trick managers are using to keep deposits.

The landlord should have “trippled” the fine. As a renter that lives above an Indian family that cooks 24/7 with strong spices, the food odors are causing damage to OUR apartment and sickness to our health due to nausea and headaches from the strong smells. Food odors are very real and the legislation needs to be modified to make it stricter.

I lived at levanto townhomes in san Diego ca. I need some advise as what my rights are and if these people are trying to screw me. We lived at the residence for approximately 1 yr 6 months we had a yr lease and were living month to month. Payed the month of Feb. On the first and on exactly the 7th the manager calls and says the market rent on our particular apt went up to 2100 I then told her we couldn’t afford that! She then offer me to pit in my 30 days that usually they require 60 nut she was gonna help us out so she then typed up 30 day intent to vacate I told her I could could have the apt cleaned and vacated the the 21st which I did handed her all keys but claimed we were gonna be responsible till the 9th of march. Is that legal since she didn’t give me a written statement stating the rent was gonna be increased? We weren’t allowed sufficient amount of time to clean and move out! And now we are supossively responsible for 9 days of rent when we aren’t even living there. Then after having her maintenance guy do the final walk through where I was present wrote up all charges to the apt that would be deducted handed me the document I signed it he gave me a copy. Then two days later I get a phone call from the manager stating there was an odor that she couldn’t pinpoint what it was. Then claimed it must be pee! We have no pets jus a 2 yr old then took a blacklight to the carpet and tried to say that urine was all over the floor when clearly it wasn’t it was milk spots that were cleaned up jus visible with a blacklight. Manager claimed she was gonna pull carpet treat cement replace padding an is be responsible. Which would be 500 or possibly more. Then she claimed that they didn’t do that they decided to go with another vendor that would put a machine in the unit that eliminates odors I then asked her how much that cost and she told me 85 dollars a day. I feel like she is trying to screw me and I want to know my rights before I confront her. Anything will help Thankyou!

Kristina