Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Re: Tenants block house sale

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Re: Tenants block house sale

You would have to say more specifically exactly what the tenants are doing that amounts to "aggressively blocking" a sale. If they are committing assault and battery on buyers and agents, yes, there's a law against that.

Keep in mind that "laws against" and "illegal" are concepts that imply that there is a written statute on the books and/or that the police or the district attorney might bring charges in the name of the people. This is the area of criminal law. More likely than not, if there is a case against these tenants at all, it will be a civil action by the property owner or other person with standing to bring a civil lawsuit for invasion of a private right. That right will probably not be expressed in "black letter law" in a code or statute.

Instead, it will probably be one of the recognized torts, such as intentional interference with prospective economic advantage.

In response to previous similar questions on LawGuru, I have tried to counsel the owner or owner's agent that there are two possible approaches to handling this kind of situation that may be quicker and cheaper than filing a civil suit. One is to evict the tenants, lawfully, of course. The other is to find out what the tenants' grievance is and cure it. There is something oddly inconsistent about trying to prevent the sale of the house. If the tenants don't like the landlord, they should be in favor of the sale, because after the sale they'll have a new landlord. If they do like the landlord, then why don't they cooperate?