Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California
Can a tenant be ask to move in 60 days from a house that is in probate because they want to sell?
3 Answers from Attorneys
Whatever the rental contract/agreement is controls the situation. If the lease does not expire until 12/1/10, who ever becomes the owner takes the property subject to any existing contracts so you could stay until at least 12/1. But if you are a month to month tenant, as most tenants are, they need only give you 30 days written notice [60 if you have lived there more than one year]. That is the major disadvantage of being a tenant--you can be forced to leave.
Since you appear to be in the City of Los Angeles, you also have some rights under the applicable rent control ordinance and regulations. Check with the local tenants rights organizations in the area. It will not save you from eviction, but you may be entitled to time and relocation assistance payments.
The sale of a building does not affect the tenants' rights under leases already in place. The tenants simply get a new landlord. If this were not so, large properties like office towers and multi-unit apartment buildings could never change hands. Of course, if you are month-to-month, your tenancy is subject to termination anyway.
Also, if the property is in probate, it has already undergone a "change in ownership" upon the death of the person whose estate is being probated.