Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in California

My son wants me to co-sign a lease in CA. I live in NY. He's lived there for about 18 months, but the roommate whose parent was co-signer is moving on. What I want to know is this: Should he fail to pay a month can I give a 30 day notice to get off the lease, knowing I would be responsible for any missed rent until that 30 days is up and that she (the landlord) would then likely give him notice to move? It is definitely a month to month, not for a specified period.

What if I gave 30 days notice and she gave him notice to move out and he didn't? I would still have the right to take myself off as co-signer with 30 days notice, yes?

I don't think any of this will happen, but in reality I need to protect myself and my credit. NY is a long way from CA in terms of trying to settle anything that came up.


Asked on 9/23/15, 12:41 am

1 Answer from Attorneys

On a month-to-month rental agreement the tenant can give 30-days notice of the termination of the rental. Whether you could get out of the co-signature with the same notice, without your son's agreement, would depend on the details of the rental agreement.

Quite frankly, though, if you can't trust anyone you are asked to give a contractual guarantee for to make the payments or otherwise handle the obligations under the contract, you are making a huge mistake giving your guarantee, which is what "co-signing" is.

If you want to be able to give 30-days notice of termination of your guarantee and have it either force a 30-day notice of termination of the tenancy, or just shift the full burden to the tenant (son or not), then you have to make that deal a clearly written part of the lease and guarantee agreement or you are just buying trouble.

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Answered on 9/23/15, 12:57 am


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