Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in California

I've recently purchased a house in Oakland, California and moved in with my partner of 6 years. I purchased the house entirely on my own and all legal documents for the house are under my name.

The relationship has since dissolved and upon asking my ex-partner to make arrangements to move out, she told me that under state and city law, I cannot force her to move out.

I am frustrated and confused wondering what my legal options are, and if in fact I can't request her to vacate the property.

Naturally she is making this much more uncomfortable than necessary and continues to threaten to take me to court if I keep asking her to move out. I am sure for the long term, she will want to move out, but I am starting to feel like my house is being taken hostage, so to speak.

We do not have a rental agreement in place but a couple of years back she had requested me to save some of her money on my bank account in order to gain higher interest on that money and to help her control her spending as well as to use it to pay for our rent at our previous domicile.

We have a pretty well organized Google Spreadsheet where we track all her money that comes in and out of the account.

Before purchasing the house, we used to live at a rental apartment and frequently I would write the full rent check and we would note on the spreadsheet the equivalent deduction from her total saved to account for 1/2 of the rent.

That said, in telling me I will have to evict her, she says she is technically paying me rent since I am holding some of her money.

My questions then are:

-How can I legally -and hopefully without much pain- have her vacate my house

-Would it help to withdrawal all her money from my account and hand over to her or write her a check for that amount and ask her to cash it so I am not longer holding that money?

Any and all help would be much appreciated.


Asked on 11/19/10, 6:41 pm

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

I assume you have not held any of her money back for any costs or expensives as to the house since buying it. The fact that she paid rent when you llived in a rental unit has no meaning as to the house, except in the sense that since she is not directly paying any rent while she did before, that implies the current situation is different then the rental one. She appears to concede this by not saying she has paid rent but merely your hold some of her money creates a rentalsituation, which it does not. Give her back all of her money [holding it for her has no benefit to you]; make her sign a release that you are gilving her the full amount and she does not claim anything more.

Since she is not paying any rent and you are not married, she basically is a guest and can be forced toleave any any time you wish. Tell her that you will call the police [they may be too busy to come] ; is she goes out of the house for some reason, change the locks. Tell her you wil agree to bring her her possessions but she can not do so by coming in the house because she might not leave. Tell her to cite the laws that prevent you form tossing her out.

Try to get her parent to convince her to leave. Perhaps bring a "girlfriend " over to show her the relationship is over; return all her gifts to you. Remove her name from any documents or writings where it appears with yours. If all of that fails, perhaps get an attorney who does not charge too much to write her a letter pointing out she is trespassing and if you have to have her arrested or get a judgment against her, it will have long term negative effects on her in many ways.

[not proof read]

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Answered on 11/24/10, 9:45 pm


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