California Landlord And Tenant Legal Questions

You can still resume negotiations with the landlord. ?The pro-tem judge could say that court was closing so you had to leave [they can not make the court staff work overtime]. It sounds as though the pro-tem made a ruling on the case instead of continuing it which was probably within their discretion and you could have asked that the matter be dropped instead of a ruling being made. If it was Small Claims you can not appeal that decision. As to whether the landlord was liable depends upon the facts; if the landlord took all reasonable precautions to try to prevent theft then they would not be liable, especially if you were aware of the situation before moving in.... Read Answer

You would give a notice to the tenant of the rent due.  If the tenant does not pay the rent, then you would initiate an unlawful detainer action to evict the tenant and to recover the unpaid rent.  You can give testimony of the oral sublease and you can sue a company even though their offices are in another state.... Read Answer

First, send a demand letter detailing your losses and the value of your damages. If you don't get a satisfactory response, take the owner of the property as well as the property manager and her son (if he is an adult) to Small Claims court if they will not reimburse you for the damage they caused. There are procedures about what must be done to safeguard your property following an eviction. It seems that these procedures were not followed here. Be certain that you make a complete list of the missing/destroyed items and a valuation based on their used value. You are not entitled to the replacement cost of new items.... Read Answer

Since the trees were on his property and he is not allowed to physically prevent you from using the easement, it is perfectly clear that he must remove all objects blocking your use of the easement. With an easement, the person granting the easement still owns the property, they are merely allowing someone else to use the property without being a trespasser. Since he refuses to pay, send him the bill for the work you did in removing the tree from your property and the easement. A very common example is as to your own home. You own the property from the rear property line to half way into the deeded in street [which often in not the actual middle of the covered street], but you are required to give the local entity the right to use an easement across the front of your property to build and maintain both the street and sidewalk.... Read Answer

Unfortunately, you have not provided enough information to really give an answer to your question. If you are on a month to month tenancy, then the terms may be modified with 30 days? notice. However, if you are on a lease for a specified term, then generally, the terms of the lease can?t be modified until the end of the lease term. A review of your specific paperwork would need to be done to really know where you stand.... Read Answer

If you are speaking about California, it is a two party consent state only for the recording of conversations that the other party has a reasonable expectation of privacy for. You do not state were you were when the landlord recorded you. If you were outside your unit, there normally would be no expectation of privacy. If you were inside your unit and the landlord was outside peeping in, you probably would have a case, but what were your damages? Having your privacy violated does establish a basis for damages, but is it worth the time and effort, and attorney fees and filing costs, to sue? The statute of limitations would start when you knew or reasonably should have known of the violation; I am unsure if it would be a one or two year statute of limitations.... Read Answer

Immediately contact the landlord's attorney and give him/her all the information. The court clerk should have checked the title of the case to see which file it should have been entered into. The lawyer probably will realize it is not worth the additional time to fight you as you could move to set aside the default under CCP 437 based upon mistake.... Read Answer

The sheriff deputies will probably tell you that is an issue you have to take up with the landlord by suing him for unlawful eviction, but they no idea whether you are legally entitled to be there or not. They have a very limited role to play and will not get involved in any disputes if they can avoid it. Whether you have any case against the landlord is questionable. Did the landlord know you lived there; if he did not, how was he supposed to serve you? It is standard procedure to ask for relief against anyone not on the lease who lives there without serving them. When parents are evicted, their children get evicted to. If you claim you have a right to live there, then you also are liable for the back rent and could be sued by the landlord, which might prevent you from successfully renting another premise.... Read Answer

You can always sue in Small Claims court but you do not give us enough information to have any idea if you will succeed. Witnesses do not tell the truth all the time while testifying, but it is very rare for a judge to refer the matter to the DA for perjury. You would have to prove that it was because of her willfully false testimony in the first hearing there was a negative result, which is very difficult to do. Also, if you sue the landlord will try to find some way to evict you or not renew your lease.... Read Answer

If it is just for an appraisal then the landlord might not be in any great hurry and it would be unreasonable to let a person who is well in. But appraisals go very quickly so it probably is better not to get into an argument with your landlord. If you will be sick for a long time, he could come in at a reasonable time. Technically, he might not be able to come in for an appraisal to get a new loan, but I would not argue the point.... Read Answer

That type of comment is not actionable. The law would not consider that a threat, as there is no statement of physical or improper harm to you. ?You need to find out the rules about renting your unit out. Unless the By Laws [CC&R which they should have given you when you bought the condo] prohibit renting, which would be very unusual, you should be able to rent it out [but must abide by limit on number of people in unit, etc.] Politely ask him what you have done wrong as you do not want to violate any rules. If you feel he will be too rude, e-mail him and ask that he e-mail you back [that also gives you a written record].... Read Answer

Look at CCP 473(b) which states: The court may, upon any terms as may be just, relieve a party or his or her legal representative from a judgment, dismissal, order,or other proceeding taken against him or her through his or her mistake, inadvertence, surprise, or excusable neglect. Did you notify the court you were not going to make the hearing? You may have a difficult time proving excusable neglect.... Read Answer