Advice on dealing with mentally unstable tenant in CA

[John Chang]

Hi, I just received a phone call from one of my tenants in a duplex that she had to call the cops on the other tenant in the duplex because he was up all night banging on the walls and screaming. She said that he has had this behavior before, for a long time, and sometimes he will go into their backyard and pull out wires and stuff and she said that she is scared because she knows he has guns. She said she thinks he's mentally unstable. 

The day after the cops were called, he called me (before I found out about this from the other tenant) and he said that he was very sick and had to go to the emergency room the night before. I wasn't sure why he was telling me this, but now I figure its probably to see if I had heard about this incident from the other tenant. 

This is the first time I am hearing of this behavior and every time in the past I have talked to him, he seemed fine, but I have not talked to him extensively. How should I bring this behavior up to him to keep the peace between the both of them. I don't want my tenants to be scared. I have thought about evicting him because he never pays his rent on time anyways, but if he is mentally unstable, I know there are laws in CA protecting his rights, so I'm not sure how to go about this. Any help? Thanks

[Matt W.]

Being mentally ill does not protect a tenant from not paying rent on time and being mentally ill does not protect a tenant from disturbing the "quiet enjoyment" of the premises for all other residents/occupants.

Is your problem tenant under a lease or month to month? What does their lease say in the clauses on payment terms or quiet enjoyment/disturbing the peace? You can proceed with eviction if you wish, but in CA the courts are always backed up so it might take some time, even with a default.

Also, if your tenant is month to month, be aware that you continuously collecting late rent might have tacitly reset the payment date, which could cause you to lose if presented properly to a judge. If that is the case, you can always serve a 30 day change of terms to set the payment date back to the agreement terms and then proceed with eviction.

Alternatively you could also serve a 30/60/90 day notice to quit depending on length of stay and/or housing assistance rules. But if they don't move out after the notice to quit expires, you'd still have an eviction on your hands.