Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in California

I have a tenant that just started his lease. Unfortunately he got late with his rent on the second month which was even 50 % of his regular month-prorated second month. He is late again on his 3rd month with 17 days again. I served him with 3 days notice to pay or quit. I want to know if I can file Unconditional Quit Notice because I can not deal with tenant that is paying rent every month late since the beginning of his contract. Being under stress if he will pay at all !

Also I found out that he has 2 dogs in the house and the contract was for only one.

Thank You for Your help!


Asked on 7/10/14, 10:25 am

1 Answer from Attorneys

The law allows eviction for habitual late payment of rent. Unfortunately what is "habitual" is not well defined anywhere in the law. Standard practice is a BARE minimum of three times late in 12 months, but most lawyers strongly recommend more to be sure you are safe. The San Francisco Apartment Association (owners' group) has some good recommendations on what to do about habitual late payers here: http://www.sfaa.org/0504legalqa.html The most important thing is to make a record of objecting to each late payment by giving a 3-day notice or other notice objecting to the late payments. Also you must give a final cease and desist notice that any further late payments will result in eviction.

As for the dogs, you can give a 3-day notice for ANY violation of the lease. So you can give a notice to get rid of one of the dogs.

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Answered on 7/10/14, 1:03 pm


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