California Landlord And Tenant Legal Questions

Certainly. They are not mutually exclusive as they are for different reasons. You may be able to sue for his trying to get your trailer towed as abandoned. You are obligated to pay the full amount of rent due under the lease and can not use the security deposit [which is supposed to cover damages you cause] to pay the rent.... Read More

You are not clear enough as to what has occurred. If they offered you a unit that was ready to move into within the time frame of the leasing agreement, then you have breached and they are entitled to get the lost rent which is the rent for the time that unit reasonably was not rented to someone else. They are not entitled to keep all three months, unless that was in the rental agreement where you could see it. ?If no unit was ever made available before you backed out of the deal, unless their is a forfeiture of deposit clause in the agreement, they have suffered no recoverable damages and are entitled to zero.... Read More

Generally, late charges are not illegal under California law. As long as the parties to a written lease acknowledge that a late payment of rent will cause the landlord to incur costs not contemplated by the lease and that the exact amount of the cost is extremely difficult and impractical to fix, the amount of the agreed-upon late fees are legal.However, the industry standard for late charges is usually a late fee of $30 to $50. It would be hard for a landlord to justify the $150 that your co-worker agreed to. That said, the best way for your co-worker to avoid having to pay the late charges would be to pay the rent when becomes due.After all, a contract was signed that states that the rent is payable in advance on the first day of every month and that if it is paid on or after the fifth of the month there is a specific penalty. Also, charging residential tenants late fees is not favored by the courts. This is because many late fees are really disguised penalties - which are prohibited.The law allows late fees when the rental agreement spells out certain language that says damages suffered due to a late payment are difficult and impractical to fix.Some landlords know exactly what these damages would be, which would make them easy to fix, making such a late fee void. Therefore, simply stating the requisite language in the lease may not make that late fee legal.Further, a late fee, if legal, must be reasonable. Your late fee of $150 sounds like a lot of money, but such charges are often viewed relative to the rent. Courts generally rule that residential late fees in excess of 6 percent of the monthly rent are excessive. So, unless your co-worker's rent is less than $2,500 a month, $150 would not be clearly excessive.The best way to avoid paying this late fee is first to determine whether the late fee is even a valid charge. If it does not conform to law or if it is excessive, you do not have to pay it. If is legal, you should pay the rent on time or get an extension, in writing, to pay the rent after the due date without incurring any additional charges.If you have paid illegal late fees in the past, you may be eligible to have those fees refunded. Seek legal advice before you refuse to pay any fees or take any action to recover those fees.... Read More

First, it's called a Quit Claim not quick. The way you do it is to obtain a Quit Claim form, fill it out properly (which would include a proper legal description of the property) and sign it before a notary. Then you record the signed and notarized Quit Claim deed with the County Recorder where the real property is located. You will also have to prepare and file a Preliminary Change of Ownership Report (PCOR) with the County Assessor's Office. BUT you should really consult an attorney to discuss the potential legal and tax ramifications of adding your children to the property ownership prior to your death. Most of the time, it?s a very BAD idea to do so. It's usually MUCH better to let them take by inheritance for a variety of legal and tax reasons. You really should speak with an experienced attorney about your particular situation before you add them to the property. Once you deed an interest to them, you can't take it back if you subsequently find out it was a mistake to do so.... Read More

First, try talking to the tenant. Explain why you need a key and perhaps he will just agree to give you one. If that doesn't work, then we come to the question of whether the premises are still on a lease or whether it has turned into a month to month tenancy. If the original lease term (and any extensions) has run out and the tenant merely stayed on, paying the rent month after month, then he is considered to be a hold over tenant and you may change the lease terms with a 30 day written notice. In this case, the new lease term would state that the landlord must be provided a key for any and all locks on the premises. After proper service of this Notice, the new rule would go into effect 30 days later. However, if the lease has been continuously renewed and is therefore still in force, then you might have to wait until the end of the current lease term to change or add any new provisions. You should let the tenant know, however, that you still have the right to enter in the event of any emergency, whether or not he is home and if you don't have a key, you might be required to break the existing lock. Your situation illustrates why it's always a good idea to have a lease reviewed by an experienced attorney who could point out clauses that are missing and ought to be included. A smart layperson might read a lease and think that the terms that are there are acceptable, but it's unlikely that he will be able to note the MISSING points that should be covered.... Read More

When you own something with another person, neither one of you can point to a particular location and say I own that corner exclusively. You both own the entire property together [just as in a stock corporation, where more than one person owns stock]. So no, he is entitled to move into the house without having to pay rent. ?As to his objection that it is not a national bank, so what. If the bank goes under, the most that can happen is you do not have to pay the mortgage money back. The bank has given you the money already, so only it has the worry that a non-payment will occur.... Read More

You do not give any facts so we can not tell if you have any case; since you have so many claims against others, it seems you probably do not have an strong claim against anyone. You probably must act within the claims period for Section 8 [that is just a program, you have to sue the Department that runs it] for suit against a governmental agency but you can sue the others involved. Whether you can find an attorney who is willing to handle your case is a major question.... Read More

Most commercial leases cover this very issue within their terms. Without reading your specific lease, there is no way to know whether you have a valid claim for a rent abatement. Many commercial leases also contain a provision which disallows a rent abatement regardless of a breach by the landlord. I urge you to CAREFULLY read your lease to see if there are specific clauses that pertain to either the issue of damages being available for a delay in the premises being ready or rent abatement in general. If your lease is silent on these issues, then it raises the question as to whether the landlord?s failure constituted a ?material? breach and prevented you from utilizing the premises in whole or in part. I urge you to contact an experienced attorney and allow him/her to read your lease and discuss the relevant facts with you. A simple yes or no answer cannot be given based on the information you provided.... Read More

Unless your city has rent control laws, no. Why should the owner have to pay you anything? If you had given him a thirty day notice you were going to leave, would you owe him anything but the rent for that month? ?If you rented a car, would Hertz have to pay you to bring it back? The disadvantage of being a renter is that you can never be sure you will not be required to leave at the end of the rental period. If landlords had to pay relocation fees, they would make tenants sign 5 year agreements to cover the costs of relocation.... Read More

If there was an agreement that you would have to pay rent, even if you never did, he would have to give you a 30 day notice and then sue you and take you to court to get you evicted. Asking someone to engage in sex in return for compensation is a crime [solicitation of sex], whether or not the other person is willing to do so. You can report him to the local police but it is also a crime to ask someone to pay you for sex. Talk to the owner of the property and find out when he is actually going to leave. Tell the jerk you are entitled to 30 days notice and you will move until you get proper notice.... Read More

Since there is no agreement for you to be a renter, you are a guess who he can order to leave at any time, but he can not keep any of your property. He has to allow you the reasonable opportunity to get your possessions. Tell him if he does not, you can sue him in Small Claims Court for their value or ask the police to help you recover the property. Point out to him that if the police come, they may look around and find the new girlfriend's drugs and arrest both of them. The cops will likely know she is a drug abuser by looking at her. The guy is a predator taking advantage of women who are helpless; he probably picks a woman up and every few months selects another woman when he tires of the first. You should also check to see that he has not given you some sexual disease, since he is likely to catch one sleeping with a prostitute and some many women using unclean needles. You are lucky to get rid of him.... Read More

Your story does not make sense. In order to evict a tenant, the landlord must give a proper and correct 3 day notice, once the 3 days passes unless you present the full rent or the amount in the 3 day notice [it is not required that the landlord actually accept what you tender to them, just that you show you have offered the money to be paid right then], the landlord or management company must file suit and properly serve all the occupants it is aware of, go to trial [takes at least 2-4 weeks for a court date], you can ask the judge for an extension if they do not accept your story of tendering the amount owed, a judgment of eviction has to be entered and given to the sheriff [can take another 2-4 weeks] who gives a move out date at which time they show up and physically remove the occupants against whom there is a judgment. ?If that is not what happened, file a Cal. Code of Civil Procedure Section 473 motion to set aside any default judgment [ask local law librarian which form books show you what to say]. ? First call and e-mail the attorney and point out the legal errors and the run around and that you will sue unless it is immediately fixed.... Read More

Why wait until the day before the hearing. if you have been a renter for more than one year, California requires that it be a 60 day notice. You do not say what the basis of the three day notice is or what grounds you demurred on so none of us have any idea whether you will win. While the owner must be the one trying to evict you, I assume that if he gave his friend the power of attorney, and he can prove that, to handle the property, he can sign the eviction notice. Holding a real estate license seems irrelevant to me. If he does not prove all the allegations in the three day notice he should lose. However, Judges are notorious for leaning toward people they trust and like, so be nice but firm.... Read More

I suspect you have little of this in writing. It is always best to have everything in writing. When is payment of the rent late according to the lease? Some judges only allow a reasonable late charge based upon the actual cost to the landlord of the late payment. A flat charge of $375 no matter how late you are seems very excessive and a judge likely would say it is against public policy. Since your cancelled checks would show how much you paid him, and he agreed to accept your vague notice of when you would leave [seems that it will be your word against his], it dopes appear he owes you the deposit and unused part of the rent you did pay. Legally, he must notify you within 21 days after you leave of what money he is withholding an why, but the code section does not state what the penalty is for failure to do so. You probably have a good chance of winning in Small Claims Court, where you would also be awarded the filing fee and reasonable cost of serving him [you can not do it yourself]. point this out to the landlord, tell him you will give him ten business days from the date of your letter or e-mail for him to consult an attorney, point out if he has to hire an attorney it may cost more than what he is keeping, and then sue if he does not comply.... Read More