Evicting in Los Angeles for non payment of water bill

[Fernando Domingo]

Hi BP, I have a tenant in Lancaster, CA that is behind in paying the water bill and I would like to start the eviction process on them. I know that I start with the 3 day notice to perform, but I was wondering if i was able to evict for the water bill. They are also behind in rent by only $50 plus the late fee. Can I demand the late fee in order for them to become current? Also, they are on a month to month lease and haven't been there for a full year at this point. I think that it may be more difficult to evict them if they have been there for over a year. Can someone help walk me through the steps and timelines for each one? Any help and info is much appreciated.

[Kyle J.]

You can serve a 3-Day Perform Covenant or Quit notice for violating any provision of the lease or rental agreement.  So if the tenant isn't paying the water bill, and it's required by the rental agreement, then you could serve a 3-Day Perform Covenant or Quit notice for that.

You can also serve a 3-Day Pay or Quit notice for the rent they are behind on.  But this notice cannot include any late fees they may owe.  For the late fees, you would want to serve another 3-Day Perform Covenant or Quit notice, presuming of course that late fees are spelled out in your rental agreement.

You can serve multiple notices at the same time.  So, for instance, you could serve notices for all of the above issues at the same time.  Additionally, since they're on a month-to-month agreement, if you want to get rid of them regardless of whether they pay/cure the violations you're serving the notices for, you could also serve them with a 30-Day Notice to Terminate Tenancy (it'd have to be a 60 day notice if they've lived in the property for a year or more).

Here's some additional reading for you if you still have questions:

Ca Dept of Consumer Affairs - Terminations And Evictions

Ca Dept of Consumer Affairs - The Eviction Process