All Forum Posts by: Carlos Lez

Posting this to help an elderly landlord: 

A rental company just called her for a reference check (saying this tenant wants to move into their apt. in the last week of March) on one of her current tenants whose current lease in San Jose, CA ends in August. The said tenant never notified the landlord of their intent to break her lease and the tenant is following up with this email "I am currently applying for a lease and they have informed me that they are awaiting your response to verify my information. So if you could get back to them at your earliest convenience I would greatly appreciate it."  

I am helping the landlord respond to this and seeking your input on how to respond to/handle this tenant and what to tell the rental company that is requesting the reference check. Needless to say, this is a shock for this landlord and appalled at this. 

I run co-living houses in San Jose CA. I have 3 students living in 3 different rooms of a SF house. Bathrooms and kitchen are shared.

One tenant writes :A confrontation occurred because I kindly asked a roommate to clear her dishes out of the sink so I would avoid contact with them as I was exposed to covid 19 and did not want to cross contaminate her dishes and I was told that since I was exposed to covid 19 that I am not allowed to use kitchen or bathroom. I am very angered because I pay to use the kitchen and restroom and I don’t know how I’m expected to live without using using the kitchen and bathrooms and utilities. If this continues to persist, I will not be able to live here and I would need my security deposit back. This is completely ridiculous and I was just stripped of using utilities here. I am pretty sure it is illegal for me not to be allowed to use the restroom and kitchen when I pay to use the restroom and kitchen"

This is all that I have from her in an email. Could someone help me respond to this? Given the COVID situation I am uncertain of how a landlord can/should get involved with this.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Dear members

As a gesture of goodwill I allowed one handyman to park his truck on a corner of my rental property premise for a short duration. During this period he has hooked up an extension to draw power from the house and used the water. He had also found a buddy and they work together fixing blenders (basically operating an unlicensed shop). I have politely asked him to move but he gives the phone to his buddy who says he will talk to a lawyer because I am harassing them! 
I’d appreciate any constructive suggestions on where to begin the process of getting them out. Please note that they are illegal immigrants here in San Jose. Further, San Jise is a sanctuary city so I don’t know what protection they have. They don’t pay me anything and I don’t have any lease it contract.

Dear Colleagues,

I need help with a spreadsheet or some calculator for distributing utility bills among tenants in my 8 unit building This is an old victorian multifam and there is just no way to sub meter these units.

Any help in this regard is greatly appreciated.

Chad, thanks for that link. There appear to be things in the works regarding this issue however nothing appears to have been ratified yet.

I should further mention, that this house is situated across the street from an elementary school, so well within 1000ft of the school. There was some federal code that prohibited use of marijuana within a 1000ft of a school in session, which my most recent reading of has been further relaxed. Further, how do you prove someone is actually smoke it when the school is in session etc. or even otherwise prove they are doing it unless you just happen to catch them.

Great points Joe. The guy insists he will stay and I can do what I want to do, aka no cash for keys or any negotiation. He is locked into a 1 year lease, so I am stuck in a tight spot. There will be other tenants moving in August 1st and I can bet that they will throw in the towel with this situation and want to quit on their 1 year leases. Nobody os going to want to confront him and will ask me to resolve this issue and this guy is not going to move easily. He is a young 23 yrs old fellow going to a local university and has a good background check with decent credit. I don't know if there are other avenues to get him to move.

People who are into this stuff cannot change they just need to find a different place that is 420 friendly. Expecting that he will change or be considerate to other housemates is not going to happen. So this is the sum and substance of this situation. If anyone has any practical suggestions to get him out quick,  that is the need of the hour. Evictions (if they are even possible in this situation) are a lost cause with courts backed up for months.

True but that is not the case. Please read the OP

I do co-living rentals. So different people in different rooms. I was over at the property to show a vacant room to a prospective tenant. He and both could smell the strong unmistakable aroma of weed from a tenant's room. We have a very strong No weed policy that clearly spells no possession or growing of weed in addition to smoking or any other method of consumption in or around the house.

I run across the offending tenant who after first denying confesses to having weed in his possession.Note:  I did not catch him smoking weed. Long story short I tried to talk him into an amicable lease termination at the end of this month. He is a young chap of around 23 and brash, he refused and suggested I can go ahead and do what I want. 

This is in San Jose, CA. With all the rapidly evolving laws what do you think is my best recourse here. I am not looking for obvious replies like, serve him a 3 day notice, go to an attorney etc. In particular I am seeking pragmatic and constrictive help on how to get this guy out. Please note that this is not an apartment - rather he is renting a single room in a house and tenants in other rooms are not going to report him but will complain that they have asthma or other respiratory conditions and want to quit.

Any actionable and constructive  (operational) suggestions are much appreciated.

I should add that the purchase is in Palo Alto, Santa Clara County, California.

Dear fellow members,

I am seeking your help in (and possibly if you could help with docs or contracts I need the seller of a multifamily house to sign off so that a proper transfer of lease that the seller has with the tenant occurs so that it is now a lease between me (buyer of the property) and the tenant. We are trying to minimize or in the best case scenario not need the tenant to sign any paperwork.

My questions are;

1) The lease states the sellers address and specific details on where the monthly payment need to go.

2) The seller has retained a security deposit from the tenant. How will that transfer occur?

3) The closing of this sale will occur around the July 5th so it is mid month. How will the rent distribution occur?

4) When does the signing of these documents happen? Escrow?

Thanks in advance for a detailed response. I do apologize if these questions are naive, but I am doin this for the very first time. and the real estate is not helpful at all. He just says "the lease will automatically transfer at the point of sale". I want to be sure to get the right documentation in place.