Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California
Rights during last 30 days of lease
We have entered our last 30 days of our lease, actually our lease expired in April, and we have been month-to-month. We are moving in September. The house we are renting is now up for sale. We have agreed to show the house, when we are home, but have not allowed a lockbox on the property. We have requested that no one, not the landlord or their real estate agent, show the house while we are not home. We have reason to believe that they have used the landlords key and shown the property while we were away. Do we have any recourse?
We have paid full rent for this month, and feel that it is our home for this month. We feel as though they invaded our privacy. We have not confronted them about it yet, but plan to.
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Rights during last 30 days of lease
The law says the landlord may enter your leased house to show it to prospective buyers or new tenants upon reasonable advance notice and during business hours. 24 hours notice is presumed reasonable and 9-to-5 usually works as acceptable hours.
The issue here seems to be whether the landlord gave you 24 hours notice, or attempted to do so. If you were away for several days and thus not reachable, the landlord may have satisfied his notice obligations by leaving a written notice or a message on your answering machine, etc. The law says the landlord doesn't have to give notice when it is 'impracticable' to do so.
Unless the landlord really botched his obligation to (try to) give notice, he is in the right. See Civil Code section 1954 at your county law library.
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