Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in California

Hello. I am hoping to find some real answers to my issue, and i Hope you can help. It is regarding my rights as a caregiver and tenant of 5 years to a man that had extreme diabetes, to which has caused him a great deal of pain, including blindness and eventually dialysis, whom became deceased. I was his roommate/confidant and my name is not on the lease. Now I am under the threat of losing all of my property and eviction.

The deceased live in a 2 bedroom condo style unit of an apartment complex in Concord California. I was his 24/7 caregiver just incidentally which continued til recently when his condition was so bad, he had to be hospitalized. Shortly after , he had passed away from the complications of his condition. Tom was his name.

So, I am not a hired nurse or professional. He was just a close friend, of whom I had taken residence with and his fading vision and other issues over time made our arrangement living together a symbiotic relationship of which he depended on me for very basic functions. I adapted to the role naturally because he needed someone, I needed a place to live, and we got along peacefully thusfar.

however, the recent year had made Tom rather embittered as he began to get depressed and 'give up' so to speak. It was hard because I became his emotional 'punching bag' for his depression and slipping mortality. Which did not do well to my existence, which after 5 years literally at his beck and call, simply because it had to be done; I was stuck with him, everyday, and he knew this well enough to make our last months together very very difficult. This on top of my social life which had long been dwindled to as handful of visitors now and then when Tom was in a good enough mood to let me have them.

Anyway, heres my issue: Tom had passed away in the hospital, and I found this out when a government official came to my door with the landlord beside her. She told me very strictly that i had to leave the apartment, and demanded financial information about Tom. It was a very threatening experience. They said that all of the property in the apartment is to remain untouched and is being seized because Tom didn't leave any will or wishes before his death. I gave them some of Toms bank statements, and some other information regarding relatives he has and they warned me that I had to leave immediately, taking note of certain items in the room like the TV , furniture etc.

Most of the property in this apartment is rightfully my property and there is no ambiguity between whats mine, and whats Tom's. I appraise, craft, and collect jewelry, antiquities, and collectables, on asignificant scale. I have nested here as the caretaker and 'midwife' of the household for five years. And I live independent of Tom monetarily aside from free room and board, in which i feel had been well reimbursed by my service to his needs on a daily basis. But it wasnt a tit for tat arrangement. We took care of each other.

The next day, I was served a 30 day notice to vacate. The landlord and the official from the the D,A,s office had both been very cold and very uncompromising. She wants to take EVERYTHING I own and put me out on the street with neigh the clothes on my back if it were up to her. She threatened about removing items from my apartment, and I have been holed up and stressed for weeks over this. Finally the time is coming. A friend of mine told me that I have rights.. That they cannot just bully me out of my home and take my belongings under the unfounded assumptions that they were Tom's, strictly because I am not on the lease and it is in Tom's Apartment.

I am desperate and need to know, CAN the DA really do this? when the 30th day comes, is everything in the apartment still present, lost? Please help me or perhaps point me to a resource i can refer to and cite confidently to these vultures and still their time to roost.

THank You!

Sincerely,

Jaymee

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