Ongoing eviction from hell in California

[Adriana Arnold]

Hello All, 

I am brand new to BiggerPockets and find it to be a great place comprised of helpful advice and expertise. I am a landlord of a single family home in California that has run my property as a charity rather than a business and I am paying for it now. I rented my single family home to a couple on a Month to Month rental agreement  that said that they had three kids in college and none of them were on the lease. They were overall late on rent, the rent is 40% below the market value, they would be  complaining about issues but never being available for the contractors to come and fix those issues.....

Covid comes and they stop paying and would pay 20% of the rent every three to four months. This January, we get a message from them that the roof is leaky and  after having given a 24h notice we arrange for a professional roofer to inspect the roof two days later.My husband shows up at the house with the roofer and one of the sons comes out and tells my husband that he can't come in but only the roofer. So my mother-in-law who was also there said that she is about to call the sheriff and the son lets them in. 

During this visit, we discover that in addition to original tenants, there are 6 extra people living there.  It's a 3 bedroom house. The two sons, sons' girlfriends, one year old child and an elderly woman, mother of the female tenant. The kitchen has a bed in it, and the rooms have blankets over furniture and no light. I immediately told my husband that I will contact a lawyer to start the eviction procedure for unauthorized occupants.The tenants' lawyer responds, and in his response fills out every box in the denials section, from habitability issues to retaliation passing  rent control, etc. and of course ask for a jury trial. 

Our court date was today, and we were informed three days ago that a son of the tenants is making a tutorial for marijuana farm cultivation in our backyard. We receive 25 short videos of him going step by step from taking marijuana plants from the kitchen to using welding generator to start building the farm structure in the backyard. The city representative went to the house but they didn't open the door so he left a notice of violation on the door and informed us about it. We wanted the city to dismantle the structure as all this was on social media in public view possibly making our home a target of marijuana related home invasion, or any other crime. Today, the city officer went their with the sheriff and all the marijuana was removed and the tenants were very friendly and compliant. Their criminal backgrounds were clean. Of course, they had two days to remove all the incriminating evidence. 

Today we show up in court, and our lawyer tells us that considering the backlog in courts, it may take up to 6 months to actually get the jury trial and that the tenants are holding us hostages so we can keep losing money, we should make them a settlement offer. As we need the house so we can move in as we live currently in one room within my husband's father's house where I teach my classes online while my kids are on Zoom at the same time, we said that we are willing to forgive $25 000 rental debt and give them two extra months to leave. Their lawyer said that they may consider our offer if we give them an extra year of rent free stay at the house!!!! So pretty much two and a half year of free rent to four generations of a family that has no right per lease to be there.  

Their lawyer refuses the offer arguing that since they were able to deposit $500 in money order onto my account we have waived our eviction rights..of course, I had returned their money orders with a letter stating that we have not waived our rights to evict and I closed my bank account.  Then the lawyer says that growing marijuana is not a big deal, and that being threatened by one of the sons is not a big deal either, the son told us that he knew where we lived and made the sign of cutting one's throat while looking at my husband.  

Our lawyer said that in 30 years of her career, she hasn't seen anything like this and that marijuana farm tutorial on its own deserves to earn them an automatic eviction, but since they asked for a jury trial the judge has to approve it.  

I am wondering if any of you had any similar experience and what advice would you have on how to deal with this situation? 

Thank you! 

[Jeff Willis]

I have been there and done that. I had a similar situation at an SFR I owned in Redding, CA. There are a few things that you need to assume to be fact: (FYI My wife is a bankruptcy attorney and also deals in real estate)

• It will take a year to get them out;
  
• They are not paying for the attorney. There are groups of attorneys that provide free services to tenants. They are radical and will do everything to cost you money in attorney fees in hopes of settling and paying their fees;
  
• When they leave, your house will be destroyed entirely and unlivable;
  
• You will never collect a penny from them for back rent or damages, so offering to forgive rent is meaningless. Once out, they will file bankruptcy, and your claim goes away. You can never collect anything;
  
• Landlords have no rights in California;
  
• Expect to spend a substantial amount to get them out finally;
  
• Your attorney is limited in what they can do, but they do have good advice on what you can do

What to do? Cash talks, rent forgiveness, does not because they will never pay the back rent, so basically, you forgive nothing. I had an attorney, and they agreed to my actions but had no knowledge of it (plausible deniability). The attorney can't do it because if the tenant is represented, they must go through their attorney. Those rules do not bind me; I can contact the tenant directly.

What I did, I got $10,000 in $100 bills. I met with the tenant, showed them the pile of money, and said, "this is yours if you move in 10 days and sign these forms. The forms were a 1542 waiver and dismissal of their countersuit, substitution of attorney (substituting their attorney for Pro-Per). I told them that once they are out, I will hand them the cash. I mentioned that if their attorney gets involved, the deal is off. It worked. Cash talks, and cash is king. In your case, it may be more than 10K that is required. I filed the dismissal and substitution with the court. Their attorney was pissed and threatened me, but nothing he could do; he no longer represented them. I even offered to provide U-HAUL trucks and drivers.

What they didn't know is that I transferred all utilities into my name. As the property owner, I can do that. I did have to pay their delinquent accounts, but now I have control of the utilities.

I spent about 20K total in getting them out. Make your sure liability and fire insurance is current.