Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Re: Landlord one fry short of happy meal... Help!

If your lease already allowed you to sublet and/or assign, getting further permission may not have been necessary; further, the landlord would not have been in a position to object unreasonably. Generally, a tenant has the right to assign or sublet unless the lease denies these rights explicitly. Unless you are leaving something out, you could have done the sublease or assignment without permission and perhaps without notice. Of course, you would have remained liable to the landlord under a sublease. Subleases and assignments are legally different animals.

While it is technically true that the landlord could not "change the terms" of the lease and keep you obligated, there was no need to change the terms. You could have sublet, leaving the terms of the basic lease unchanged.

How long will it take you to find another place and move? A three-day notice terminates your right of possession, but he still must file and win an unlawful detainer and then wait a little longer to obtain a writ of possession and get the sheriff to throw you out. Perhaps you could oppose the UD and win, or at least get a little more time.

As to making visits and inspections, the law requires "reasonable notice" to be given by the landlord to the tenant. 24 hours is presumed to be reasonable, but the period can be either longer or shorter depending upon the circumstances. Emergencies are an exception to the reasonable notice requirement, but I do not see any aspects of an emergency here. Also, the landlord may argue that his intrusions aren't really inspections, especially if he stays outdoors, but in that case these visits may be harassment and fall under another category of prohibited landlord behavior.