California Apartment Association

Question: I suspect there are at least five people living in a one-bedroom apartment in one of our units. The lease only allows three persons and they have not paid rent. I want to serve a three-day notice to pay rent or quit, but I do not know all of their names. What should I do?

Answer: If you serve a three-day notice, address it to the occupants for which you have the names and also to “all others in possession.” If they pay the rent, however, you may have agreed to the additional people living there. If you do not intend to allow their occupancy, you could also serve a three-day notice to perform conditions and/or covenants or quit requiring that the additional people vacate within three days. If either or both of the notices are not complied with, you can commence with an eviction in court.

Question: A tenant of three years recently vacated with only a verbal two-week notice. Can she be charged for unpaid rent? She did not have a lease agreement and never signed anything stating that she would give a 30-day notice.

Answer: If the rent is paid monthly and there is no term stated in the lease, written or verbal, the law presumes you are under a month-to-month agreement which requires a 30-day written notice to terminate. If no written notice was given, the former tenant owes rent up to thirty days or until the time you relet the premises (you have to try), whichever occurs first.

Kimball, Tirey & St. John LLP is a full service real estate law firm representing residential and commercial property owners and managers. This article is for general information purposes only. Laws may have changed since this article was published. Before acting, be sure to receive legal advice from our office. If you have questions, please contact your local KTS office. For contact information, please visit our website: www.kts-law.com. For past Legal Alerts, Questions & Answers, and Legal Articles, please consult the resource library section of our website.

 

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