Legal Question in Civil Litigation in California

Your question is about landlord/tenant law, but you posted it under general civil litigation. You should re-post it under the right category so that lawyers with the relevant expertise will see it.

Proceed with an unlawful detainer. This starts with a three-day/thirty day notice. The number of days depends on whether the tenants have breached their lease (such as by not paying rent). Oral month-to-month leases are valid in California, so the lack of a writing does not seem to be important here.

There are some decent books on DYI landlording and eviction. I nevertheless recommend that you get a lawyer to help you with this first set of evictions. You can use the experience as a learning process, so that you can do the easy ones on your own, and get advice from a lawyer only when things get sticky. Unlawful detainer requires strict adherence to the law -- one error, and you have to start all over.

Be careful with the advice that Mr. Perry gave you.

First of all, the fact that there is no written lease agreement is not crucial to a tenancy. If they were occupying the property with the permission of the previous owner, and paying rent, then they are tenants. Your purchase of the property just made you the new landlord.

You had better check those facts first. You need to find out if there was a written lease for sure, and whether or not they were occupying with the consent of the prior owner and paying rent. If neither of those apply, then you actually have a forcible entry and detainer problem, not an unlawful detainer.

If they are lawful tenants and are paying their rent, you cannot evict them with a 3 day pay or quit notice. You would have to serve a 30 day notice to terminate a month to month, and possibly a 60 day notice depending on how long you have lived there.

I really suggest you get some legal assistance from a competent real estate attorney. I realize that attorneys can be a pain in the ass, but some good advice can save you a lot of heartache down the road.

How? By following all the rules and requirements, and filing and serving the required paperwork and pleadings. If you don't know EXACTLY how to do that, hire an attorney or eviction service that does. If you make one mistake, the court will throw out the case and make you start over.

Mr. Roach is wrong about the notice, but is quite correct about making VERY sure you have your facts right. Because you bought at foreclosure, they are entitled to 90 days notice if they have no lease, not 30 or 60, unless they fail to pay rent. If they fail to pay rent, then they can be evicted the same as if you had rented to them directly - by giving a 3-day notice to pay or quit and then filing an unlawful detainer case if they don't pay. If you give the 90-day notice and they fail to vacate, you also file an unlawful detainer case. Mr. Nelson gives good advice about not trying to do it yourself unless you really know what you are doing.