What Are My Rights? - Landlord Forum thread 359734

What Are My Rights? by BayAreaLL on September 20, 2019 @15:02

Hello All!
Landlord here in Bay Area California. Looking for some advice and I'll try to be concise as possible. I had tenants who had a one year lease that just ended.
Previously, a month before I receieved an email stating that they found people who would want to take the house over at end of lease. I replied by saying that would be fine and I'll be in touch with new people regarding move-in date and new lease.

I emailed new roommates saying that the will also be a rent increase of $150/month.

Without me knowing, these new people moved in. After finding this out, I told them that I would then have to write an addendum that they are assuming responsibility of an damages from previous tenants since they just moved themselves in.

I drafted a lease with addendum and added rent increase and told them they need to sign and pay their deposit. They replied by saying,"I am very sorry it took this long but our intentions as a house are to check in with a tenants association to get an overview of our situation and options. I have an appointment for tomorrow and we will have a plan of action soon after that. I expect that by Thursday we will all know how to proceed."

So, waited until Thursday, yesterday and now they are saying this,"As a house we have come to a decision about how we would like to proceed and will have something written up that outlines said deciscions by tomorrow. Thank you."

They did pay this months rent but at the rate the previous tenants were paying.

Do they have any legal right since no lease is signed?

Feel helpless and taken advantage of. The landlord/tenant laws seem very in favor of tenants around here but at the same time, they have yet to sign lease and pay deposit. So, technically I feel that they aren't tenants and have no right.

What are my options?

Thanks so much for taking time to read this

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Re: What Are My Rights? by Robert on October 1, 2019 @13:02	[ Reply ]

congratulations, you have just entered landlord hell. Your new tenants are squatters and you need to now follow cali law to evict them. these are professional squatters so you need to do every thing by the book. There is no way I would want people like this renting from me. First go to appropriate county website and read eviction process. Some counties have help desks you can ask specific questions at. First step is to post quit notice on door. good luck! In cali squatters have rights. your first mistake was accepting rent from them so now you will have a very hard time since they are tenants now. You may have to pay them to move out.

Re: What Are My Rights?