All Forum Posts by: Adriana Arnold

@David Avery , thank you for your support! I am exclusively focused on retaking possession of our property and the safety of our family considering the threats and marijuana presence on the property.

I think that we have been very reasonably with our offer and given that the tenants want to remain in the house for free and for a long period of time, we have no choice but wait for the legal process to go through as their demand for an extra year of free rent is unacceptable. 

 Thank you for your support ! The problems I am facing seem to be due to the nature of character of the tenants. The principle of extortion (settlement) wants that the demanding party be satisfied in their demands no matter how unlawful and unrealistic they are. So if my tenants who seriously broke the lease (unauthorized occupants, death threats, marijuana farm growth.etc.) demand that I forgive 26 000$ of rental debt, give them an extra year of free rent and some money, the judge will force us to make an offer that closely matches those demands independently from the law and rights. 

I refuse to give into extortion and it is going to be up to the jury to decide whether my tenants demands are legitimate. 

@Jerrid M. Richards, I completely understand. I paid 7k so far in lawyers' fees and so far, they have not prepared a single authentic document outside of filling out the notice of eviction and court paperwork. Knowing all that, I prepared 15 different files of various material evidence and correspondence so when we showed in court last week, I passed all of that to the lawyer who represented us that day. She returned all the documents to me and this week, I will probably have another lawyer from the same company and I will present the same documents to him/her as well. 

In each of my files, I have also included the corresponding Civil Codes Articles or any other laws that regulate the issue in question with the idea that whatever issue the defense lawyer may attempt to bring up, I will have some type of material evidence to counter it. 

I would definitely go with another lawyer and stay on them. My lawyer justified his lack of demand for documentation by the fact that our lease is clear on who can live in the house and that written authorization is needed for any additional occupants meaning that stipulation alone would be sufficient to get an eviction, but I disagree with him thus all the work I did collecting evidence. 

@Carl Mathis I agree 100% with you! The judicial system is attempting to reduce costs in unlawful detainer cases by forcing landlords (capitalists) to carry the burden of the structural dysfunctionalism. In other words, individuals (landlords) pay for collective ideology. For example, in Western societies with socialist policies, the government will step in to cover for individual hardship and specifically pay back the landlord for lost rent. These countries (England, France, Germany, etc.) would never  force individuals (landlords) to reward (settle) with law breakers (tenants) of course provided the evidence of law/lease breaches. 

In the United States, many of existing policies are far more dangerous than any of the communist utopistic beliefs as in communism, individuals would have some sort of class conciousness that would prevent individuals from trying to create harm to other individuals.  

@Lynne Smith thank you for your input! ! In California, we are dealing with very long eviction process and once the tenant asks for a jury trial, the judges put pressure on landlords to settle so the jury trial is avoided meaning that landlords are carrying the burden. 

As a criminal justice professional, I refuse to give into extortion methods and contribute to passing a bad apple to another landlord. I would rather wait out the entire eviction process but sleep good at night.  In California, some people genuinely believe that renting a property and breaching the lease in place in multiple stances still gives them all rights as my tenants have told me, "you can never kick us out because we complained to you about some repairs". This is pretty much the philosophy of this state. 

@Lynne Smith

Well, their goal is to hold us hostage so we keep losing money until we are able to get the jury trial and allow the judge to make a decision on the eviction. The principle of settlement promotion by the courts, gives the impression to tenants that they can make any kind of demands that the desperate landlords will give in so they can take possession of their property even though the tenant is 100% at fault. 

Our only offer was to forgive over $25 000 of rental debt, two months to leave and no civil suit for al the damage. They refused and we are to go back to court next week again to see what their new offer may be. Our lawyer warned us to expect the most ridiculous demands next week. 

Thank you Joseph for your input! I am 100% guilty of selecting these tenants based on the idea that they are who they said they were: honest and hard working people that need some help to get back on their feet. Their credit score was low 520 and 545, huge red flags, but my agent said that it was due to them paying for college and that since they had brand new cars, they know their priorities and will be paying rent. 

I made mistake after mistake because I felt sorry for their situation and when tribulations hit us, we really realized the colossal losses their tenancy has created for our family. 

Once again, we hear everywhere how capitalists (property owners) should show more compassion and when they do it leads to situations like the one I am in. 

Of course the house in not inhabitable, they lack both material evidence and logical connection to establish the habitability claim.  There were some ceiling leaks that they did not tell us about, probably in an attempt to avoid being exposed for  having 6 extra people in the house. When they refused to call the roofer that our insurance would have covered, they found some random individual cut out the ceiling to fix who knows what kind of damage, as we were never shown the pictures of the damage, and said that they will deduct that from their rental debt. 

Since then, we were able to access the property and fix the roof, but as I mentioned, I have videos of them going on the roof to plays some games, as the very places where the leaks occurred.  And what reasonable person would say the house is inhabitable but we moved in all our relatives in and we like it so much that we want an extra year of free rent in it. 

@Judy Parker, I called the public health services in Los Angeles County and they told me that given the Covid moratorium they would not issue any  occupancy violation for a single family home. It's a 3 bedroom house with 8 people, but 4 generations meaning that "technically" the toddler, the elderly woman  and  the three couples should each have a separate room.