Hjelm

BACKGROUND

In May 2011, the Hjelms signed a residential lease agreement, renting apartment 1720A in the Chesapeake Point Apartments, San Mateo (the property). As Prometheus itself describes it, the Hjelms “entered into a one-year residential lease with Prometheus for the property . . . .” The Hjelms signed the lease without any negotiation, indeed, while they were still out of state in their former home, the lease having been mailed to them.

1 The lease was a standard Prometheus-drafted lease. The basic agreement was seven pages long and, with various addenda, it totaled 24 pages. As discussed in detail below, the lease (and one addendum) had three provisions allowing Prometheus to recover attorney fees, all of them one-sided, allowing fees only to Prometheus. In June 2011, the Hjelms moved into apartment 1720A. Fifteen months later, they moved out, their apartment plagued by a bedbug infestation that Prometheus failed to address, not to mention that there was raw sewage on the property. In September 2012, the Hjelms filed suit against Prometheus. The operative first amended complaint (complaint) alleged seven causes of action, styled as follows: (1) negligence; (2) premises…