Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California
We live in California. We let a friend sublet our spare bedroom. We did not put anything in writing and he paid us in cash every month. He abruptly moved out 10 days into his last month of staying with us, and is now demanding we refund him the prorated rent for the month. Can he legally get the money from us? He still has a key to the house and has a few possessions still here.
2 Answers from Attorneys
He is a month to month tenant and must give you 30 days notice.
A person who lives with you and pays rent for a spare bedroom is probably not a tenant or subtenant. He is probably a lodger. The rights and duties of tenants and lodgers can be different, including the 30-day notice requirement. This makes me less confident that you can legally refuse to made a refund. Probably you can, but your right to do so would be based on an implied contract that the lodger was going to stay the entire month rather than the statutory rules applying to landlords and tenants.
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