Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in California

Re: eciction

I'm going to apologize in advance - you will not like this answer.

First, if he is so terrible, why would you rent to him to begin with? I'm totally confused. Did you not know going into this that he didn't work? Did you contact his prior landlords to get references? At this point, you know what you did wrong, and you have to understand that once you realize you made the mistake by renting to him, you need to know it is not going to be easy or comfortable to get him out. These are the kind of people who generally will not go easily.

If he pays within the three days, then your next best means of evicting him is to give him a thirty (30) day notice to terminate his tenancy. At the end of the thirty (30) days, if he doesn't leave, you are going to have to hire an attorney and evict him. Again, this is going to be tremendously uncomfortable because you live in the same home with him. One additional note - did you obtain the permission of your landlord in writing to sub-let a room to this tenant? If you did not, your tenant is going to raise this as an issue - that you had no right renting the room in the first place, and will probably argue that you lack standing to evict him. That is not a valid argument, but you will have to defend all of this unless you can come to some mutual understanding and have him leave on his own accord.

As for his behavior, filthiness and conduct in his room, it frankly is not anything you can do anything about. What he does in the room he rents, as long is it is not illegal, is none of your business. If he has a woman guest over, again, it is none of your business. You cannot exercise any form of "self help" like turning off utilities, locking him out, or moving him out of the house while he's gone. That will get you sued without question.

Hire an attorney and evict him if he doesn't pay by the end of the third day. Alternatively, give him a thirty (30) day notice to quit if he does pay, and again, hire an attorney to evict him if he doesn't leave at the end of that time frame. You are going to have to be flexible, and willing to endure a lot of pain as you go through this - its going to get very, very uncomfortable before he is gone.

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