Rather tenant/roommate leaves quietly without eviction proceedings...
January 13, 2016 1:31 PM   Subscribe

Tenant/roommate has been late on rent all three months she has been there. Still no rent this month and I need to end this. It's a month to month rental agreement. Need to find free/sliding scale counsel, and have a few questions that I would like some insight on, so I can be most successful. In Los Angeles. Will get legal advice, but want to be a bit more educated going in.

Situation:

* Month to month written rental agreement.
* I semi-live there. It is my house, but I am spending most of my time away, don't really have much stuff there.
* My boyfriend lives there full time. It is my stated place of residence, although I am only there one or two days a week at the moment.
* She has been late all three months.
* It is the 13th and she is showing no sign of paying.
* Rental agreement says I can give her 30 day notice.
* Because of some months of hard finances, this is causing me to not be able to pay my mortgage.
* I gave her a heads up today that I was going to ask her to leave, she was good at first, then lost it, screamed horrible personal things at me and hung up on me. (Including this to show what I might be up against. And it's been mentioned to me that she will make drama and is known for it. As it is, she is saying it is my fault for upsetting her (?!?)).


Questions:

* Are there any free/sliding scale legal places where I could get help in the next day or so?
* Is a lease considered broken because of non-payment?
* Is there a difference between tenant and roommate in this situation, and in CA does that even matter?
* I would ideally like her to move at the end of this month, but that is 2 weeks from now, can I do a Mutual Termination Agreement?
* Since she didn't pay the rent, can it be assumed that this is her last month?
* Ideally, I'd like to be able to give her a legal, written termination date of the 31st of his month, but don't know if that is possible. If I can get her to agree to this over legal eviction, that would be great.
* Since evicition sounds like a huge process I do not want to go through, I think I would be ok giving her a 30 day termination of tenancy and eat half a month's rent, but I'm confused if I can do that starting 1/15/16, and not on 2/1/16 (as our agreement is from the 1st and not the 15th, but if she hasn't paid, I am not sure we even have an agreement anymore, and this is what is most confusing to me).


I know you are not my lawyer, and I am not looking for legal advice. I am just looking for insights and maybe some clarity ("good idea", "bad idea", "don't forget..." "XXXX tends to be easiest", "Make sure you ask counsel xxxx") to go in with.

Thank you.
posted by Vaike to Law & Government (8 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
In general, not paying rent or paying late does not void a lease right away. Ask her if she will leave by Jan 31 and not have to pay any January rent. If she says no, tell her that you are giving her notice to leave by Feb 29 but she will owe you for both January and February then. Either way, write up the results and ask her to sign.

Did she pay a deposit? Does the lease allow for late fees?
posted by soelo at 1:40 PM on January 13, 2016 [6 favorites]


Start with LawHelpCA.org. ProBono.net is quite reputable and has extremely good resources (I know attorneys who use them for refreshers sometimes).

But every county in the U.S. has free or sliding scale resources for landlord-tenant disputes. Just use your search engine of choice to find the one near you. If you don't qualify for their assistance, ask for a referral to either a self-help clinic (most courthouses in the U.S. have a self-help desk staffed by legal aid attorneys for courts that typically have a high volume of self-represented litigants, like housing court) or an attorney.
posted by crush-onastick at 3:14 PM on January 13, 2016 [1 favorite]


I know the law in Los Angeles on this! You can call the state or county to confirm, slightly different laws may apply to you because this is a home & not an apartment building....Basically...

Give her written notice TODAY she has 30 days to vacate. You can find forms for this online! You legally serve this notice by tacking a copy on her door + sending a copy certified mail.

There's a ton of other stuff you might want to know about - but it's all drama. Serve her the 30 days notice and be done with it.

- You also need to serve her a 3 day notice to pay or quit. This form is also online! You want to list January's rent as being owed. You may or may not get the rent in 3 Days.

Actually, you don't want the owed rent. Her owed rent is a negotiating tool. Ditto her deposit, which you should and will give back if she leaves the place tidy and undamaged. Use the monies owed to negotiate and sign a vacate agreement.

- NO. You may not not not use her deposit to pay her rent in Los Angeles. Deposit is for physical damages beyond wear and tear, only. You must provide receipts if you withhold any money. Don't withold any money unless she burns the place down, she's not worth it.

Find another way to pay your mortgage. January's rent will likely not be paid. That's OK.

If all goes well, you might be able to convince her to leave before the 30 days notice is up. Do everything in writing via email. NO MORE PHONE CALLS, NO MORE TEXTS.

Keep everything dispassionate and professional. Just serve the notices, ignore everything else. Don't get sucked into debates or arguments. Suck up the money, it's a lesson well learned.

Don't talk to her again. It'll be OK. Good luck.
posted by jbenben at 3:37 PM on January 13, 2016 [9 favorites]


If you sever the lease today, 30 Days is February 12th. Double check, but I'm pretty sure as a homeowner you can legally serve her the 30 Day Notice.

If she doesn't leave by February 12th (or whenever you serve her 30 Days) then you'll have to sue her for eviction. The first step is serving legal notice.

She sounds like she's a mess and she'll agree to leave when she sees you are serious and professional vs. engaging in pleading, arguments, and drama.

That's my best knowledge on all this. Again, good luck
posted by jbenben at 3:45 PM on January 13, 2016 [1 favorite]


As a LL, I will second that certified mail is now your friend for all further communications.

What exactly does your lease say? That's going to be one of the first things a lawyer looks at. Unless you've got something odd in your lease, a month-to-month lease can be terminated on the grounds that the landlord or tenant wishes to do so. It's only the amount of lead time that differs according to the length of the tenancy.

Your lawyer will explain the technicalities of giving notice, but you will not be able to get rid of her this month; in fact, after receiving notice (assuming you issue it immediately), she may have until the end of February to disappear, depending on the rules of the jurisdiction.

You should operate on the assumption that the rent will not be forthcoming. Your lawyer will advise you on the likelihood of getting any of it back (e.g., by garnishing her paychecks), but that may be a losing proposition.
posted by thomas j wise at 4:50 PM on January 13, 2016 [1 favorite]


Response by poster: She paid a deposit. There is a late fee.

My lease says:
"month to month tenancy that may be terminated by either party. The owner giving 60-day written notice (for over 1 year tenancy), or a 30-day written notice to move (for less than one year tenancy)".

At this point, I am guessing my main question to counsel will be can I give her a written termination immediately?

(And thank you all so far. This has been surprisingly upsetting, and my first thought was 'I can come to metafilter!')
posted by Vaike at 6:27 PM on January 13, 2016


Please continue to investigate the "3 day notice to pay or quit" process.

FYI: My landlord will post the "3 day notice" on the door the very next day after the rent is due.
90% of the time the tenant just forgot or was out of town on rent day...
but it is his right to protect himself and initiate this notice on the first day that rent is overdue.
posted by calgirl at 6:55 PM on January 13, 2016 [1 favorite]


Your local laws will determine how soon after unpaid rent you can give notice of termination. For instance, in my jurisdiction, I can immediately serve what is called a 5-day notice if I do not receive rent by its due date. If the tenant does not pay within 5 days of that notice, I can immediately start eviction proceedings. Based on other responses, it sounds like you have a 3-day notice which works the same way in your county.

That's legally different from terminating the lease, which is the 30-day notice provided in the language you've quoted from the lease. Practically, it will make a difference. In my jurisdiction, once I serve the 5-day notice, any action to terminate the lease per the terms of the lease cancels the notice (as would receipt of the full amount past due rent). I don't know how it works in LA, but you'd want to ask about that.

In my jurisdiction which again is not Los Angeles and therefore likely quite different, evictions usually take about 120 days (15 for service and a first court date, tenant usually gets 7 days from the judge to find an attorney--most show up at the first date without a lawyer--, then has 30 days to respond, 14 to 30 for another court date, then the order of possession (which is what requires the tenant to leave) is nearly always stayed for 90 days. This is if you don't sue for the unpaid rent on top of eviction. If you sue for the rent as well, add 60 days for discovery and motions. Where I live, it is usually faster to get a tenant to agree to a 30-day quit, but then you're 30 days behind if she does not go as agreed. Either way, landlords almost always end up not collecting the lost rent, although they can keep deposits. This is a significant difference from how it usually goes in the suburban part of the county and the next county over.

If you talk to an attorney, you might want to ask how evictions usually go in your local courts.
posted by crush-onastick at 7:11 PM on January 13, 2016


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