Hi

I live in San Francisco; the building has 4 floors and I live on the
1st floor (back of building) I share a large patio/garden with my
next-door neighbour. The length of the outdoor area spans the size of
my apartment and about 25% of my neighbour's.

The owner decided it is time to paint the building- and that is great.
Except that the scaffolding (back) is constructed on my patio. Most
annoying. (Size-wise, I would estimate that 25% of the apt. rent goes
to the patio)

I put a request to get reimbursed for 25% of my rent (divided by 4) for each week.

The request was denied. They are sending me a letter to tell me why;
my guess is that they will say it is for the benefit of the building
that they are doing this paint job.

I wanted to have a BBQ at that time for friends + I cannot go out on
the patio much any more to enjoy it + I have wokers on my patio from
8:30AM till 4ish/5ish..etc.

Do I have legal ground for this or just let it go?

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Clarification of Question by hsb-ga on 10 Aug 2004 23:35 PDT

sounds like I am stuck with this..

will check lease and wait for their letter to come. Thanks

HB

hsb --

The first thing you should do is take a careful look at your lease. 
While a right to put scaffolding in your patio will not be covered
specifically, of course, the owner may well have included language
reserving a right to reasonable access to your premises for the
purpose of maintenance, etc.

In any case, the terms of the lease are the place to start for
arguments for or against his right to put up the scaffolding.

However, Google researchers are not allowed to give legal advice, so
we are not in a position to give you such advice on the meaning under
California law of specific provisions of your lease.

markj-ga

You might want to look at this from the owner's point of view.  A
leaking faucet can get fixed fast or slow - - if you get my drift.  My
recommendation is to write a very nice, "I wasn't thinkin' and am very
sorry", letter.