Issues with tenant and how to remove them

[Wendy Williams]

Not a landlord but a tenant. I have a question I'm hoping someone might be able to help me out with. I'm sorry if this is very long I just want to be descriptive with the situation.  I have a roommate that I would like to have removed from the home we are renting. On the lease it's just the 2 of us, it's supposed to be the two of us, no pets, if we want pets we can get them but we have to pay the pet fee, we are not allowed to sublease or have people not on the lease living there with us. It was a one year lease and after the one year we went to month to month.

Back in February my roommate's GF had to move out of her place that she just bought a few months before because her neighbor fell asleep with a lit cigarette and caused major smoke and fire damage, she shared one wall with his unit so she was affected and had to move out to let them go in and fix it. Her insurance put her up in a hotel and she stayed there until they ran out of money for her hotel allocation. They asked me if she could stay with us for some time, I said that I was okay with that, she's a nice person, and I was thinking this would be a month maybe two months max, so she moved in with her dog. I told my roommate you need to tell our landlord that she will be staying with us for a bit and that there was a dog and to pay the dog fee, I saw it as it's his GF it's his responsibility to say something, and I kept reminding him about that. Well, beginning of this month we are starting into 5 months of her being there. I was no longer okay with her being there, they didn't help clean, they used and did not respect my things (broke dishware and didn't say anything or replace it, took my food with out asking first, took over my fan and ran it for 72 hours straight almost overheating it, ruined a white plastic pail with red paint then left it on the balcony without cleaning it and it's still sitting there months and months later), she works from home and he works at night so during the day they were always there, electricity bill went up almost double, there was no alone time. I started to feel taken advantage of, like I can't be at home even on my days off, I can't relax, I can't cook in the kitchen or sit down in the living room to watch tv or craft (my days off are during the week) because they are right next door and I might be making to much noise for her work zoom meetings or something. It didn't feel like my home and I've been living there for 15 years, I felt like I was walking on eggshells and like a third wheel in the apartment. So last Monday I finally got the courage to talk to them. I asked her what was going on with her place, I had not heard anything in a month about it and wanted to know. She said that they went to check it out that weekend and that they fixed the ceiling but they did a poor job cause it was leaking so they had to redo the work. I asked her how much longer, she replied with two more months maybe?? I told her that I was very sorry, that I was no longer comfortable with her being there anymore, that I felt that 4 months of her staying with us rent free (I did not ask her to pay rent, I don't think roomate did either, she would give $50 for bills from time to time) was more than enough help from my end and that she needed to find other accommodations, maybe stay with a friend or move back in with her mom or something. I gave them my reasons, the high bills, the no longer being able to feel comfortable at home doing anything, not being able to recharge my batteries in a way, not feeling like it was my home, feeling like a third wheel (which roommate sarcastically replied with "ohhhhh Wow"). I gave her one week to move out, two if she really needed the extra week. My roommate followed me to my room and knocked on my door and got very aggressive and demanded to know the real reason why I was doing this. I told him those were the real reasons that it's nothing personal and I'm no longer comfortable with her being there, that I've gained nothing by her being there and he has, that by him not telling the landlord about the dog that I repeatedly have asked him to he is risking the apartment. Like I mentioned he became very nasty and aggressive towards me and said things like how I went back on my word and that I'm not allowed to talk or text his GF AT ALL from here on out, anything I have to say to her it has to go through him. It got pretty bad that I did not feel safe anymore and my gut told me to take my more valuable items and store them in my car for fear of retaliation of some sort since they are home all day and with bedroom doors not locking they could go into my room. She left on Friday (all her stuff was gone and no more dog), they made a giant mess of the kitchen on purpose starting on Wednesday/Thursday. They left me a giant pile of dirty dishes on the sink, a trashcan and recycling bin that overflowed to the floor and stained the wall and floor, a dirty floor and a stove top covered in grease and food particles that were even smeared on the wall. They were both there all day Wednesday and Thursday and did not clean up, they left Friday and he did not come back until Monday (yesterday) night. Sunday I cleaned everything up, took out the trash (3 large trash bags full), washed the dishes, cleaned the stove and walls, washed the trashcan and recycling bin and put them out on the balcony to dry and air out, swept the floor and mopped. Like I mentioned he came back yesterday night around 9pm, I heard him walking around but I did not leave my room. When I woke this morning and went to the kitchen to grab a banana on my way to work, I saw that he made another mess in the kitchen. He brought in take out, took the red sauce from his take out and poured it all over the stove, he then took more sauce (maybe his food plate?) and threw it against the wall were the trashcan would have been (our trashcan is tall, there is no way he did not notice it was not there) and left a sauce trail on the floor, splattered against the counter/cabinets and dishwasher, and he left his dirty take out container, my silverware that he used to eat, and things like paper towels/straw wrapper and such in the sink. There is no way this was ban accident by how it looks, he's being a petty man child because he did not get his way. He has shown to be entitled as well in the past, he got upset because his car got broken into (6 cars were broken into that night mine included) and blamed our landlord for that (it could have happened anywhere to anyone, I see it as an unfortunate events), our washing machine broke and it's not one of the items listed as being taken care of by our landlord on the lease so we need to fix it ourselves if we want one or we use the laundry on site, and our landlord raised our rent by $90 (almost nothing compared to places around us and the cost of living in the area we are at for our unit) and he got upset that rent got raised and we got nothing back in return according to him, he threatened to move out at the time. I asked him where the hell has he lived before that a landlord or leasing office has given you something extra for raising your rent?? Which landlord says I raised your rent by $100 here is a new pool for your trouble????

I had a meeting with my landlord during the weekend, we went out for coffee. I explained everything that happened, has happened and how it all got started. He knows about the dog and the roommates gf (which by the way he never told the landlord and never paid the fees). I've tried to be a good tenant, I've lived in that apartment for 15 year going into 16 now, I have a good tenant relationship with my landlord and I don't like keeping secrets from him, I've never had any issues before, he's actually told me I'm one of his best tenants. I felt guilty for not speaking up sooner, I made the mistake of trusting them to do the right thing and not setting boundaries with them. Now I don't feel comfortable at home anymore, I'm afraid that my roommate will harm/destroy my personal belongings, I'm afraid for my safety in a way, my gut feeling tells me to be weary of him. I would like him to leave/move out and I can find another roomate and start again (like I said I've been living there for 15 years I consider it my home and it's ideal for my commute to work), my landlord called me today and said that he was going through the laws and what not and because of covid and recently passed California tenant laws that he can't evict him, so he is between a rock and a hard place. I don't really know what to do and moving is not really an option for me.

is there a way to evict him? Get him to leave on his own?