Question: A resident is suspected of violating their lease agreement by having an unauthorized occupant and does not want to add that person to the lease. What is the best method of verifying the unauthorized person’s residency?
Ted Kimball
Kimball, Tirey & St. John LLP
Answer: You should require that they fill out an application and apply for the unit. If they are approved then they should sign the lease. If they refuse, a three-day notice to perform conditions/covenants or quit should be served, and if they still fail to comply, commence the eviction process.
Question: We have problems with tenants requesting repairs on the appliances. We inspect the appliances before the tenants move in, and they are in working condition.
Answer: Part of the responsibility of providing a habitable residential unit is to provide for working appliances. However, they are required to maintain the property in good repair and order. If the resident is to blame for a non-working appliance, they are required to pay for the cost of repair or replacement.
Question: What if the first of the month falls on a weekend?
Answer: Under California law, Sunday is automatically considered a holiday. So if the first is a Sunday, a notice to pay rent or quit can normally be served on the following Tuesday (unless Monday is also a holiday in which case you have to wait until Wednesday). However, Saturday is not automatically treated as a holiday. It is only treated as a holiday if the tenant needs to access their bank in order to pay their rent and their bank is closed on Saturdays. Unless the landlord knows the tenant’s bank is open on Saturdays, the safe approach is to treat Saturdays like a holiday and give the tenant through Monday to pay (unless Monday is a holiday).
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.