“If you are forced to evict them, the that’s when you deal with a lawyer, in my opinion.”
Last year I handled an eviction on behalf of a family member. Didn’t need a lawyer. By the time I researched and pulled together all my documentation (this tenant had skipped out on rent, and when I confronted him with a piece of paper saying he needed to pay $x by X date or he was out, ripped up the paper, threw the pieces on the ground, and walked away. Fun times) – where was I? Anyway by the time I did all that, it was just as easy for me to play Perry Mason than to pay someone to bring them up to speed.
Thanks to all the postings. But I think I have resolved the problem. I had a candid conversation with my tenants and they agreed that the Sister family must not stay or to pay a higher rent. I will still give them a three days notice for formality, nevertheless. They are good tenants and pay rent on time.
Yes, there are a lot of “problems” in renting/eviction and each tenant is different. Some want to terminate the lease early, some wants to stay few more month, some can be resolved quickly, some will fight tooth to nails. I have a “tenant” who fight with me for TWO and half years, so it goes.
If they are good tenants, pay the rent on time, and the problem is resolved—why give them three days notice? That would really anger me, as a tenant. You’d better explain exactly why you are giving it to them, if they think the problem is resolved, or they might just change their attitude towards you.
BD
I have got only verbal commitment, not sure if they will truly comply, that is why I think I want to give them formal notice. Perhaps a change in lease terms, instead of 3 day notice.
artloversplus, you are lucky, as far tenant relations are concerned, that the property is not in SF or Berkeley. I heard there is going to be a proposition on the ballot in Oakland that favors tenants.
So would the formal notice specify that they have three days to move the family out, or their 30 day notice to leave the property starts? Or if you send the change in lease terms, what would that be?
I had thought that supposedly California already had laws on the books that strongly favored tenants, but when my son just moved, his landlord kept $1,000 of his deposit. $800 was for “changing the lock on the door”. Changing the door locks is something that my husband does for free when a tenant moves, and I can’t imagine that if you hired someone that it would cost any more than $150-$200, if that. He was going to pursue it, but his landlord sounds kind of nutty, so I think he just decided to let it go. I wouldn’t let it go, on principle, if it was me.
In ca, if the tenant has established tenancy, you cannot give a 30 day notice, it is a 60 day notice for matters other than no continue rent payment. The 3 day notice is only if they do not pay rent, then the court. My notice will be some thing called “change in lease terms”, it is like lease extension, you can change the rent, or add any other terms to the existing lease.
Funny thing is that if some how the squatter had NEVER paid rent, they got 60 days notice. I had a construction crew stay in the property with one of the girl friend, when they finished the job, the girl friend refuse to leave and I have to give her 60 days notice. I finally paid her off to get her out of the house.
dstark,
Thank GOD for the house is not in the rent controlled area, nevertheless, CA is renter’s heaven, they have all the rights, we have none.
DS rents a 4BR house with friends. Over the summer when they had a 6th person they paid an extra $200/month. That situation was nice because all arranged ahead of time.
I have heard local landlords are concerned because town rules allow 12 related people to share a house. Hopefully they can specify a lower number in the lease.
In most states, you can’t do this for anyone but yourself. You can’t appear in court, you can’t file eviction papers (well, you can physically do the filing, but can’t sign anything). In Colorado, non lawyers can’t represent anyone, not property managers, not family members, not nobody. I used to work in small claims court and only the person filing can appear (no attorneys representing others). Once up to county court where most landlord tenant stuff happens, only lawyers can represent others. If you don’t own the property, you can’t appear in court. I’ve told many property managers, LLC members where the LLC owns the property, relatives of landlords that they cannot appear. No, a power of attorney does not make you an attorney. No, being married to the property owner doesn’t make you the property owner. No, just because you ‘do this all the time’ doesn’t allow you to do it in this court.
“You have to give squatters 60 days notice? That’s screwed up. You should be able to just call the cops on them for being unlawfully on your property!”
Its a long story, but if the “squatter” has stayed in your property for over one or two weeks and you did not call the cops, they have established a “legal” residency. In my case, the girl friend came to stay with my construction crew and refused to leave. I will be more careful not having the construction crews stay in the property longer than a week.
@Consolation
I suppose if they stay more than 2 weeks and start getting mails at the location, they could establish a “legal” residency.
Another crazy story I had was that the son of a “former” owner of this house I bought in a foreclosure, “took in” a calculated girl as “tenant” without even informed me, He had this crazy idea to “rent” out the house by the room and he can “make” the utility bill. The girl was there for only few nights, but he “collected” few hundred dollar as “rent” of which he had no authority to do so. When cops were called, all she did was to yell “that guy collected rent from me”, the cops backed out right away and she stayed. I had to spend couple thousand to get her out.
Its not exactly “Pacific Heights” but my stories goes on and on…