California Landlord And Tenant Legal Questions

Look at your lease to see what it says as to how payment must be made; if it is silent, you could deposit it into his account but warn him first. ?Your duty is to offer payment to the landlord; keep copies of the check you write out and the envelope you send it to. That discharges your duty; if he losses the check, that is his problem. He should pay for cancelling any issued but lost checks.... Read More

You do not tell us where you are in the process. If the three day notice said you would be evicted for failure to pay rent, you could successfully win an eviction trial if you could prove that was not one of the reasons. If you left without an eviction trial, you could sue the landlord. But how are you going to prove that the failure to pay rent was not the cause of the eviction? Unless you have something in writing from the landlord or he told someone else why he was actually evicting you, it would be his word against your word and you have the burden of proof.... Read More

He should write them that under California law he is entitled to recover his personal property and if he is not given a reasonable opportunity to do so, they are liable to civil suit for conversation of property which allows him to recover the fair market value, interest at 7% from the date he was prevented from taking his property, and the costs of suit. ?he might also be entitled to attorney fees [the Code Section governing conversation suggests that is an additional remedy but a judge I tried a similar case in front of did not allow it].... Read More

Unfortunately, there is no exact answer to your question. Part of it depends on how promptly the plaintiff files the follow up paperwork and partly it depends on the Sheriff?s schedule. The countdown goes something like this: You have 5 calendar days to file an Answer from the date you were served. On the 6th day, the plaintiff is entitled to file a Request for Entry of Default and obtain a Writ of Possession from the Court. He can then hand deliver the Writ to the Sheriff?s office the same day. The Sheriff will then send an officer to post a notice at the premises indicating a return date. How soon the officer posts that notice is dependent upon their schedule. On the indicated return date (usually 5 days later), the officer will return with a locksmith and if you don?t voluntarily leave the premises at that time, will have the locksmith open the door and the officer will physically remove you from the premises.... Read More

Unfortunately, you have not provided enough facts to give a full analysis, but it is possible that your father was served via ?substituted service? on you. Whether that was a proper method of service in your father?s particular circumstance could only be evaluated by knowing a lot more of the surrounding facts. There are circumstances which make the substituted service method valid. If valid in your father?s case, it would mean that good service was achieved on your father and that he now has an answer due within the time stated on the Summons. Your father should immediately seek to meet with an experienced attorney to explain all the surrounding facts so that he can timely take proper action. Failure to do so could result in a default being entered against your father and eventually, a default judgment.... Read More

Even if you got a judgment against them, how are you going collect anything when they are in another state and probably have no assets. You could perhaps make it a little more difficult for them to rent elsewhere by getting an eviction judgment which would show up on their credit record. Consider it an expensive lesson on why you keep your own money for yourself. You might be able to deduct it from your taxes as a bad debt.... Read More

Have you spoken to them to find out why they flip the switch. Maybe its one of their children doing it. It is also best to find out why someone is behaving as they are before threatening to sue them. If you do sue, be sure to come up with a list of how what they do has hurt you [reset all clocks, have to turn TV back on, never sure if local power outage, etc.]. Try to get a statement, under penalty of perjury if possible from the electric company as to what caused the power stoppage.... Read More

Your question requires an attorney consultation. It is not a simple question that can be answered on this type of forum. There are many factors that would need to be considered and evaluated. I strongly suggest that you contact an experienced landlord/tenant or real estate attorney for a face-to-face consultation and give him/her all of the facts surrounding your situation. (S)he would then be in a better position to analyze your problem and advise you of your options.... Read More

With a month to month lease, at the end of each month a new rental agreement is made [although the parties may not realize that]. So either side can request that new terms not against the law [you need to check if there are any rent control laws applicable] be added. if either side does not like any term of the contract, they do not have to sign and the rental agreement ends. So the short answer is, the landlord can demand the length of the term of rental be increased.... Read More

Well, unless you have a lease agreement with your landlord, the proper party to “evict” your roommate would be the landlord. I would question whether or not you have the “authority” for force your room mate to leave. Obviously, I would need to read all relevant agreements to see who has such authority to “request departure”.... Read More