Help us during an unexpected and ill-timed eviction

March 2, 2020 11:45 AM

The landlord has blindsided us at a very critical time in our lives where we don't want to move and need at least more time than they have given us. We've done some footwork already, but want to have plenty of ammo if need be....

There is a LOT of nuance to our situation, so I'll try to be as succinct as possible.

We're in California. The ELDERLY landlord mailed us a 60 day notice to vacate last week (haven't received it yet). The reason given is for the landlord's relative to occupy our rental (a house on a lot containing 2 rental houses), due to the relative being 'hired at a job' in our area. Currently said relative is living in a 'pool house' (a small 1 room shack, small studio apt sized, separate from the 2 houses) on the property. The end of our 60 day grace period falls on or very near to the birth date of our first child.

The landlord knows our situation with our yet to be born baby, yet here we are. The landlord also offered for us to switch with their relative, i.e. we could go live in the pool shack while the relative moves into our house (3 bd/3ba). And we can leave our furniture/belongings behind if we want to. Also, the landlord proposed what amounts to erecting a mini house, yurt or tool shed on their property as 'extra living space.' Insulting.

The landlord has not responded to multiple requests to talk things over and come up with a solution that gives us a little more buffer in our time of need (expecting a baby, hello?) and that everyone involved can agree on. Last we heard from the landlord was 'the notice is in the mail'.

We know we're behind the 8 ball here because landlords can get away with this technically. There are a few things we are investigating right now (tenancy laws, housing advocates, etc) as to help our case should we decide we need that buffer, but I reach out to the me-fites. I think we have some fairly good reasons to claim that we need more time, but we can always use more.

We are not bad tenants, rent was always on time, and we fixed things here and there (always reimbursed) throughout our 3.5 years of occupancy so the landlord wouldn't be hassled.

We are already planning for the worse and are actively looking for a new place, don't worry.

posted by kilohertz to Law & Government (14 answers total)

Do you have a lease? If so, what does it say?
posted by theora55 at 12:04 PM on March 2, 2020 [6 favorites]

This sucks, but it seems like your landlord is being as helpful as they have to be given that they want you all out. This all sucks, but remember that you can throw money at the problem in terms of hiring movers.
posted by k8t at 12:12 PM on March 2, 2020 [1 favorite]

Is there a chance your landlord is squeezing you out deliberately because you are having a kid? There are a lot of anti-kid landlords out there, and even though it's illegal it happens.
posted by mskyle at 12:19 PM on March 2, 2020 [8 favorites]

California landlord-tenant laws vary greatly from county to county, so your best bet would be to contact your local tenants rights organization for further assistance. They can inform you of your rights and may even be able to refer you to legal aid.

If you're having trouble finding a local organization, try searching the local resource directory at Tenants Together.
posted by montbrarian at 12:48 PM on March 2, 2020 [3 favorites]

This conforms to standards I've experienced in California, and is not technically an eviction, no matter how much it may suck. When looking for a new place, do not list this as an eviction, or answer the question on the lease application about being evicted as if you have based on this.
posted by LionIndex at 12:55 PM on March 2, 2020 [18 favorites]

Is it possible to play the disability card here? I'm not sure a 9-months-pregnant woman can realistically be expected to move boxes and furniture. Also, have you straight-out asked for an extension? I would suggest asking, in writing, for an additional 60 days.
posted by shoesietart at 1:19 PM on March 2, 2020 [1 favorite]

I encourage you to Get a Lawyer (MeFi Wiki) for a consultation in your jurisdiction. A landlord botching the notice can sometimes create delays, so it could be helpful for you to get legal advice tailored to your jurisdiction, including about the Fair Housing Act and similar protections that may also exist in your state, i.e. can/should you ask for a reasonable accommodation of additional time due to the protected condition of the pregnancy (e.g. similar to Model Letter #8 in this Fair Housing Handbook from Disability Rights Oregon at pdf 26).
posted by katra at 1:32 PM on March 2, 2020 [5 favorites]

The legality of all this depends a lot on your municipality in California. As an example, the city of Oakland recently changed its laws on owner move-ins, and there are a quite a few things that determine the legality of whether an owner has the right to do this. For example, the landlord must own 33% or more of the building; the relative must be a qualified relative (spouse, domestic partner, child, parent, or grandparent); and there is an enormous amount of required paperwork that if not included, make the notice an illegal notice. You can see all of those here, and even if you don't live in Oakland it may open some avenues of inquiry in your own jurisdiction.
posted by oneirodynia at 1:50 PM on March 2, 2020 [1 favorite]

Also I wonder about the fact that the relative already has a unit on the same property, that might change things. Landlords can't just order you to swap units. Definitely talk to someone who knows the law where you live.
posted by oneirodynia at 1:59 PM on March 2, 2020 [5 favorites]

I will nth the suggestions above to do more research and consult a lawyer. You may also find the Nolo book on California Tenants' Rights quite helpful. The notices have very specific language requirements by state law (and often local law as well), and if these are not followed, the notice can be invalid, setting back the timeline some. Depending on where exactly you are, owner/relative move-ins can have very strict requirements and may require significant payments to you even when they are legal.

If you happen to be in the Bay Area, I had a good experience with the law firm Tobener and Ravenscroft when fighting a fake owner move-in.
posted by ktkt at 2:39 PM on March 2, 2020

Check with a tenant advocacy group or lawyer, but if you're on a lease like any I've had in California, you're probably on a month to month lease now, right? So it seems like it's irrelevant that the person moving in is their relative or already living on the property and definitely irrelevant that you were a good tenant; they (unfortunately) seem to have a right to ask you to leave. Maybe you could fight it in some way, but it seems to me like it would be less stressful to focus your energy on finding a new apartment and then, if you can afford, throw money at having someone else do a full-service move including packing.
posted by pinochiette at 7:30 PM on March 2, 2020

I generally endorse the "get local legal advice" suggestion. If that doesn't pan out, the higher-risk, higher-reward move here is to tell the landlord, "Look, we don't want to be trouble to you, but it is just not physically possible for us to move out at or around the date one of us is giving birth. It's not happening. It will take you a while and cost you good money to evict us. We will be out [say 60 days after that], no trouble at all, no cost to you. There's no reason that your relative has to be in our unit in two months or not at all, right? Can't we just agree to that?"

The risks on that one are obvious, though.

(People who voluntarily live month-to-month who aren't halfway out the door for some reason just baffle me, because these kinds of situations are unfortunately quite predictable, but here we are.)
posted by praemunire at 9:08 PM on March 2, 2020 [4 favorites]

This took quite a while for me to process, but month-to-month in a city with strong tenant protections is not necessarily the same as month-to-month in general. In Oakland, for example, landlords can't just give 30-60 day notice to end a month-to-month lease as you might elsewhere, due to the just cause eviction laws. If rent control doesn't apply, they can nudge tenants out by raising the rent, but even this is somewhat controlled. If rent control does apply, then a month-to-month lease is basically a perpetual lease from the landlord's perspective, unless very specific conditions apply, for cause (e.g. tenant not paying rent or running a drug house) or no-fault (e.g. the owner moving into the property themselves).

This is why you see posts urging them to get legal advice specific to their city. The situation is not necessarily as simple as you might guess.
posted by ktkt at 4:46 PM on March 3, 2020 [3 favorites]

Response by poster: OP here. The landlord has suddenly come to their senses and is offering to re-sign a lease with us.
posted by kilohertz at 1:40 PM on March 5, 2020 [2 favorites]