When a tenant gets sued in a California eviction action, an unlawful detainer, the tenant will often want to file a cross-complaint against the landlord for some issue relating to the tenancy.  Unfortunately or fortunately, depending on how you look at it, unlawful detainers are summary proceedings.   As summary proceedings, the court does not allow cross-complaints.  Sometimes, however, tenants can seek affirmative relief through the use of certain affirmative defenses like breach of the warranty of habitability or retaliatory eviction.  Those claims can even allow the tenant to recover their attorneys’ fees in certain circumstances.

Even though unlawful detainers are summary proceedings, there are procedural tools available to experienced unlawful detainer attorneys that can actually allow the tenant to not only prevail in the eviction but to obtain affirmative relief.

For more information or help with your unlawful detainer action, contact us at Schorr Law, APC, 310-954-1877, info@schorr-law.com, www.schorr-law.com