In California, evicting a tenant can be a difficult process. It has multiple stages and greatly consumes the landlord’s time. Landlords, by law, have the right to evict non-complying tenants. But to do so, they have to file a lawsuit and perform the right legal actions to succeed.
If a tenant has violated the agreements they signed for on the lease they share with the landlords, a landlord has the right to remove the tenant from their property. If, on the other hand, a tenant has not violated any of the agreement specified in the lease, the landlord should not renew the lease agreement when the time the current one has come to an end.
Legal authorities state that the process of evicting a tenant should take approximately 1 month. These types of cases are treated with great priority by the legal authorities of California. Only criminal prosecution is higher on their list.
In order to successfully evict a renter, the owner of the property should follow a series of steps, which will be explained in the following lines:
You should have reasons justifiable by law to evict a tenant
Just reasons, according to California laws are:
- The tenant has failed to pay the rent.
- A tenant has damaged the property of the landlord and has affected its market value.
- The tenant is not complying with some clauses in the lease agreement.
- The lease has ceased its agreed period of time, and the tenant is still inside the premises.
- The soon to be ex-renter is performing illegal activity inside the property.
- The tenant is causing trouble to other renters and continues to do so after being warned about it.
- The tenancy is just a monthly one, and you as a landlord want to terminate it.
What to avoid before or during the eviction process
First of all, a landlord should stick to the law when evicting a tenant. Due legal process should be followed, and abuse of all kind should be avoided. If you want to know precisely what are the steps you should take to evict a tenant, go to Express Evictions to learn more!
These are some of the things a landlord should refrain from doing when evicting a tenant:
They cannot fend for themselves and force a tenant to leave the premises via forceful methods such as violence.
The owner of a property cannot cut the amenities or utilities of the property to force the tenant to leave.
Using threats of any kind is prohibited. Even threatening to seek their deportation is considered an offense.
Cut corners with the legal system and try to bribe members of the eviction hearing.
Consider that any tenant can sue a landlord that has used any of these methods to evict them forcefully. They can win this lawsuit, and the landlord can be fined up to $2,000. Any legal actions to evict a tenant that is considered retaliation for a legal complaint exercised by the tenant, are illegal. These complaints are typically about the conditions of the property they are renting. The landlord is responsible for maintaining the property in optimal conditions for it to be rentable by others.
Duties of an evicting landlord
If a landlord wants to file for an eviction, the following steps should be taken first.
The eviction notice should be appropriate.
Legal action can start immediately upon the expiration of a notice. To file due to failure to pay, a three-day notice should be served to the tenant to indicate the rent is due.
You should include in the notice the personal data of the tenant (including Name and Address), the date you sent the notice to this person and your schedule availability to receive the payment, the amount of money the tenant owes you and a certificate of service indicating you notified the tenant.
You should sign this and make sure you followed all the required steps. Many tenants tend to claim that the notice didn’t arrive properly, so be careful with this.
Stick with us to learn more about the steps to evict a tenant!
