Rental rights when apartment complex is sold (California)

Factual Questions
1

Please help me with this possibly ugly situation. My wife and I moved into an apartment 5 months ago. The complex has 8 units but only 14 parking spots. We were only given one spot when we moved in, but the management company’s rep told us that we would get a second spot as soon as one of the six units with two spots moved out. The 8th unit was empty at the time we moved in, so this gave us seniority for getting a second spot. Someone else moved into that 8th unit and also was given only one spot about a month after we moved in.

A couple months ago, the complex was sold to a new owner. During the sale, one of our neighbors brought around sheets for everyone to fill out, about any problems we were having or anything the new owners (a married couple) needed to know. I filled ours out, making a note that we were entitled to an extra parking spot as soon as someone moved out.

Now, someone is moving out of one of the two spot units. According to the maintenance man (who also collects the rent), they are listing the new available unit as having two parking spots. I told him about our agreement with the company that leased the apartment to us, and about the sheet that I had filled out from the new owners. The new owners have not given us their phone #, so I gave him my number and he told me that they would call me about this.

I’m hoping that the new owners are reasonable people and that they honor our agreement with the previous owner. We never would have moved in here if we were going to be stuck with only one spot, due to the horrendous parking situation in the area. But assuming that they don’t want to honor it, what rights do I have? I had a verbal contract with the previous owner about the parking spot - does this give me any right to the spot or am I shit out of luck on it? I"m going to be extremely pissed off if they tell me that I’m stuck with the one spot. Thanks for your help!

2

IANAL, but a verbal agreement is only worth the paper it’s written on. Unless you have something in writing from the previous owner (and possibly not even then), you are basically at the mercy of the new owners.

3

Most apartments in Washington (especially in Seattle) are managed by rental companies. The owners may have come through to be warm and fuzzy and the rental company may not know your arrangement with the owners from a lack of communication.

Your first step is to see who actually *manages * your building.

4

wrong, wrong, wrong. A verbal contract is as binding as a written one, provided that you can prove such a contract exists. The previous owner should be able to verify the existence of the contract. It’s beyond my ken whether such a contract passes with the ownership of the building, or whether such an obligation can be assigned without the assignee’s knowledge, but the validity of the contract does NOT hinge on writing it down (unless it falls under the statute of frauds, which wiser heads than mine must rule on!).