Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in California
I'm renting a roon of a house. There is no lease. An arbitrary notice was found under my door. It is arbitrarily written by the owner of the house. The title reads, "Notice To Terminate Month to Month Tenancy." Via email I can send a copy. It essentially states the owner has given 30 days to leave. I'll highlight a few of the paragraphs:
"Please take notice that under the terms of the Month-to-month rental agreement you hold possession of the below described premises, that your month-to-month tenancy of the hereinafter described premises is hereby terminated as of the date Thirty days / 60 days after the service of this notice upon you and that you are hereby required to quit and surrender possession thereof to the undersigned on or befA ore the date Thirty days / 60 Days after the service of this notice upon you."
Well, you get the idea. A handwritten "X" was placed in the first mention of 30 days but where boxes were provided to select 30 or 60 days in the second mention, the owner forgot to check it.
Another paragraph reads: "Please take further notice that you are still legally obligated to pay the pro-rated rent to the landlord/owner until the expiration of the 30 / 60 day time period. Again, there is a handwritten "X" by the 30 days.
Another paragraph reads: "By law you have the right to request an initial inspection of your unit and to be present during that inspection, which shall occur no earlier than two weeks before the termination of the tenancy and during normal business hours. At this inspection, the owner/agent will provide an itemized statement specifying repairs or cleaning proposed to be the basis for deductions from the security deposit. Please contact the owner/agent to request an initial inspection and you will be given a separate notice of Resident's Option to Request an intial inspection form."
There was no deposit. None was ever requested.
It's dated and signed by the owner.
The last paragraph reads: "This notice is not an eviction notice. However, your failure to vacate the premises after the expiration of the 30 / 60 day time period could result in an unlawful detainer court action being filed against you. As required by law you are hereby notified that a negative credit report reflecting on your credit history may be submitted to a credit reporting agency if you fail to fulfill the terms of your credit obligations."
The owner entered my room while I was away. She didn't like seeing I had food in my room. Yes, there was food in my room. The food was contained in proper containers or the original container it was purchased in. Other than that, the room was clean.
I have cats in the room. This was perfectly acceptable when I first moved in. The litter box is always clean.
No, there has been no drinking, drugs, fights, parties or any of the other usual reasons why landlords evict tenants. The owner simply wants me out for arbitrary reasons.
What are my rights? What recourse do I have against the ridiculous notice found under my door. Again, I want to emphasize, I asked the owner if she entered my room while I was good and she admitted doing so. She said she has the legal right to do so.
1 Answer from Attorneys
Normally, the owner does not need a reason to evict you in a month to month tenancy if proper notice is given. If you are in the City of Los Angeles, however, and the property where you reside is not exempt, then you may be covered by the Los Angeles Rent Stabilization Ordinance (LARSO), which is a rent control ordinance that applies to Los Angeles City, but not Los Angeles County.
Under LARSO, a landlord may not arbitrarily evict a tenant, even on a month to month tenancy. I suggest finding out today whether or not you are covered under LARSO, or exempt. A telephone call to the Los Angeles Housing Department would help.
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