Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Re: 30 notice and selling of rental property

I see you have one reply already, but I have a little different slant on your facts, so I thought I would also reply.

First, a one-year oral lease is valid and can be enforced if it can be proven. Code of Civil Procedure section 1971. That's often the main disadvantage to to doing deals by jawbone; even if they are theoretically valid there is no proof of their terms or even of their existence.

If you had a one-year lease, you couldn't be evicted on any kind of notice, 30 days or otherwise, prior to the end of the lease, so long as you did not materially breach the lease. If the property was sold during the term of your lease, the buyer would take it subject to the lease. In other words, it would be "income property" to the buyer and not available as his personal residence until the lease expired.

The flipside of not being required to move out before the end of the lease is that you're not permitted to! Giving notice and moving out would be a breach.

Well, it looks as though both you and your landlord chose to ignore the oral one-year lease and to act as though it were month-to-month. A court might consider this as evidence that the one-year oral lease either never existed or that it had been set aside by mutual agreement or waiver, which of course the parties can do.

A thirty-day notice can be served on any day of the month, and is effective 30 days after served, without regard to whether that day is the beginning of the month or not. Thus, notice given on March 17 becomes effective April 16. This is true unless the lease specifically provides otherwise and is true whether it is the landlord or the tenant giving the notice.

Finally, while an oral lease for a year or less is legally binding, the 30-day notice must be in writing to be enforceable.

Re: 30 notice and selling of rental property

In general, a month-to-month tenancy requires a full month's notice. This means that if you give notice in the middle of a month, the notice is not effective until the end of the following month.

Did your landlord say you had to move out so they could sell it? Not every property is sold vacant so it does not automatically mean that they want you to move just because they told you they want to sell.

In this case, if the landlord pursues this in court, you would probably have to pay an additional month's rent.

The above comments are for information only and do not constitute legal advice, nor create an attorney-client relationship.