Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in California

Only if it is a month-to-month rental agreement. If it is a lease for a specified term, such as six months or a year, you are on the hook for the rent until one of three events. 1. The lease ends and is not renewed. 2. Your son voluntarily moves out prior to the end of the lease term, in which case you are liable for rent for however long it takes the landlord to find a replacement tenant (exercising commercially reasonable efforts to do so) or the full remaining term of the lease, whichever comes first. 3. Your son is evicted, in which case you are liable for the rent through the date he vacates the premises or is forcibly removed by the sheriff, plus whatever court costs and other damages the landlord proves at the eviction trial, including attorneys fees if the lease provides for them.