Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Re: Unlawful Detainer

No, unless she has a property management agreement or power of attorney from the owner.

Re: Unlawful Detainer

You may also want to consider that she may have acquired title to the property, and is now the legal owner.

Re: Unlawful Detainer

As you seem to know, in California all lawsuits including unlawful detainers must be brought in the name of the "real party in interest." Since an unlawful detainer is an action to gain or regain possession, it can be brought only by someone claiming a possessory right, such as an owner, manager or other agent of the owner, or a subsequent tenant. Anyone else probably lacks standing to sue.

If you are going to court anyway, you can always assert lack of standing as an additional defense. However, the problem is easily corrected by the plaintiff, if it exists, by amending the pleadings. Also, as the other answers point out, a sufficient possessory interest for standing to sue will not always be shown by the documents of record at the courthouse. She may have acquired some unrecorded right through a prenuptial agreement, for example.

I would not rely solely on the standing to sue defense here.

Re: Unlawful Detainer

Dear Inquirer:

Nothing herein shall create an attorney-client relationship, unless a written retainer agreement is executed by the attorney and client. This communication contains general information only. Nothing herein shall constitute an attorney-client communication nor legal advice. There likely are deadlines and time-limits associated with your case; you should contact an attorney of your choice for legal advice specific to your personal situation, at once.

If you haven't already done so, please visit my

web site at --

http://home.pacbell.net/edbjr/ OR

http://www.CaliforniaDivorceAttorney.com

The site contains quite a bit of general information about California Family Law, Tenants' Rights, and Juvenile Dependencies, and EDD hearings and appeals, as well as information about me (education, experience, et cetera) and my office (location, hours, fees, policies).

NOW, IN RESPONSE TO YOUR INQUIRY --

Anyone can sue anyone for anything any time. The real question is whether she has standing to sue successfully. If the facts in your question are true and correct, she probably does NOT have standing to bring the Unlawful Detainer and you probably can challenge the complaint by demurrer. Without further investigation of the facts, however, I would not count on it.

Thanks for sharing your interesting inquiry with

us on LawGuru, and good luck with your case.