CA legal Q: landlord access - verbal agreements - privacy

[Kelly G.]

Greetings - haven't been here for awhile - hope you had a relaxing holiday season!

I am in the midst of a rather complicated situation, but will try to make this as short and concise as possible.

In mid Nov, I moved out of my house, into my small RV, and rented my house to my neighbors who ran into landlord difficulty (should have been my warning sign).  We have a month-to-month agreement, but it does not specify the verbal agreements we made, cuz at the time, my neighbors were my friends (my second mistake)!  Basically, I agreed to move out with the caveat that I would have access to the house (kitchen) a few times/month, and to the property in general, as all my stuff is stored there! We agreed that house access would be allowed between 10-3; there were no such limitations to the property, although they now contest that.  We have exchanged several emails regarding this dispute in the last week; culminating in an email I received a couple days ago stating that they feel I am violating their privacy rights by not adhering to the 10-3 agreement and they threw in some lovely legalese about not having brought the issue up earlier for fear of 'retaliation'! They even cited CA code 1594 re: access.

 Q1: Up to this point, I have given them 'notice' of my intent to be at the house by phone (when we were still talking) and/or by email. CA 1594 suggests that this notice must be in writing. It's not practical for me to wait a week to mail them a notice of intent to enter. And I am now 2 hours away, so I can't just stop by and drop a note that says I'll be up tomorrow. As they accepted email and phone notice in the past, is this still acceptable, given their current nasty mood?

Q2:  How do I - or can I - re-write the rental agreement to include all the access language (and other things like smoking restrictions) that were verbally agreed to but not codified in writing  - without their considering this "retaliation".  Or is it not a big deal?  Also, how much "access" can I get without them crying foul for being coerced into an agreement (I see the writing on the wall now!)

Q3:  Because my move-out was still in progress when they moved in, I dropped the rent $100/mo (without really discussing it with them in advance) to compensate for the inconvenience and for the minor utilities I would use while there (maybe $10/mo).  A temporary adjustment, though the rental agreement does not say that. Can I increase the rent to the original $1000/month that we had agreed to - (though I realize I can only raise it to $990 (10%) without 60 day notice)

How concerned do I need to be about their "retaliation" threat?  If we had a verbal agreement to access, and all my stuff is on the property, I should be able to get my stuff with reasonable notice and sufficient time on the property.  

One other fact:  we always had the agreement, that if living in my RV wasn't working for me, I could have my house back.  This they reiterated in a email just before their nasty-gram.  

Q4: Given that they've gone from friends to nasty tenants in < 2 months, should I feign needing my house back and kick their butts to the street?  Honestly, I may need my house back as living in my RV is proving more difficult than anticipated (summer is sooo much easier).   I don't see how they can consider this "retaliation" as they agreed to move if necessary.  

Appreciate your thoughts!

Kelly

(No good deed goes unpunished)