Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in California
Over a year ago I rented a room in a sober living house for $600 a month, fully furnished, all utilites and cable tv included, and had a signed rental agreement with the manager. Last week the manager was evicted from the house by the owner for not paying the rent money to him per their agreement. The utilites were all in the managers name, so he had them all shut off and took all the furniture with him when he left as well. The owner has turned on the electricity and water, but he wants me to pay him the same rent as before when I now have no phone, cable, trash service or furniture. Since I have no written agreement with him, does he have the right to reduce the services I was paying for and evict me if I disagree and feel my rent should be reduced to compensate? If so, what legal process does he have to go through to evict me, if any, or can he just lock me out as he is threatening to do?
1 Answer from Attorneys
The answer to your question is, unfortunately, going to depend on a lot of factors. First, having lived their for a year, I must assume that you are a month-to-month tenant. Second, I must assume that you were actually sub-letting from the manager, and never had a lease directly with the owner of the property. Finally, you need to determine if the landlord's eviction was an "evict all" order, or just the manager. If the homeowner was smart, and obtained an "evict all" order from the Court, then your right to remain in the property may have already been terminated. In that case, yes, he can change the terms of your tenancy if he wants to let you stay. Second, even if he did not get an "evict all" order, because I assume you are a month-to-month tenant, the landlord need only give you 30 days notice of a change in terms of tenancy, such as a reduction in services.
How he is going to evict you again depends on what has already been done. Without reviewing the specifics of your situation, there is absolutely no way to say how this will proceed. I suggest that you contact an attorney in your area who works with tenants and after a review of what has happened, that attorney can advise you how this will go forward.
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