Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in California

Lease Contract Question

I have a salon in which workers rent space instead of receive a salary. Every renter signed a 12 month contract. Every renter was also given a rental discount for a period of time as incentive to sign on. Contract states that if they leave prior to fulfilling their 12 month committment, they are required to pay back the amount of the discount they received due to breaking the contract.

I have one worker that has violated OTHER terms of her contract including harassing another worker into resigning due to the hostility. If I dismiss her from the salon due to HER violations (I do have witnesses and written accounts of her intimidating and even threatening behavior), am I legally entitled to still charge her the discount refund?

In my view she has broken her contract by violating the policies outlined within. Am I correct, or do I just forfeit that money if I have to ask her to leave?


Asked on 5/16/09, 5:22 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
George Shers Law Offices of Georges H. Shers

Re: Lease Contract Question

You have to look carefully at what the contract terms say; since you wrote it up or it was pepared for you, if anything is unclear the court would use the interpretation that is more favorable to her than you. If your contract speaks of her breaking the lease then you could demand back the refund as whenever there is a breach either side can use proper methods to enforce the penalties for a breach. When, in the more typical situation, a tenant fails to pay rent, the landlord does not wait for the tenant to leave the premises but rather files suit to force the tenant out. So your asking her to leave does not change the situation of her breaching the contract.

If the contract states that the money has to be paid back if she on her own leaves, then you would not be able to obtain the discounted sum.

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Answered on 5/16/09, 11:53 am


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