Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Re: Eviction

Defenses? You should be looking for an offensive strategy. Your issue, if I understand your question correctly, is not so much that you want to resist eviction as it is that you may be able to assert an ownership interest in the home.

Your facts are a bit confusing in that at one point yo say the owners are terminating your tenancy because they have decided to sell, then later you say it is because you have quit as their employees. I suppose one is their stated position and the other is your reading of the facts.

Asserting any right to an ownership interest in real estate without a written agreement is an uphill battle. The basic law is that it can't be done, but there is a handful of exceptions. There may be a loophole that fits your situation.

You have to stop thinking in terms of defenses (we've always paid our rent on time; we've never violated any codes) and start looking for assertive theories by which you can claim an ownership interest, or, failing that, a right to be reimbursed for the improvements you made.

This field of law - property rights under an oral agreement not satisfying the statute of frauds - is worthy of thousands of pages in a legal treatise on the subject, and I can't begin to explain the (slim) possibilities you have to assert a claim for ownership against the owners on LawGuru.

Suffice it to say that there is at least a slim chance you can prevail, but a better analysis would require a face-to-face discussion and probably some research after the interview.