State Specific Question About: CALIFORNIA (CA)

We bought a fixer duplex Ina great neighborhood where one 3/1 unit has an illegal garage conversion and a family of six living there. This year Los Angeles building code inspector comes and tells us we have to convert it back to a garage. Can we take this opportunity to evict the tenants and remodel, without running afoul of rent control people (and pay about $8k in relocation fees)?

Basically say that they can't stay because the property does not have enough bedrooms for a family of six?

DaveT,

Thanks fro the reminder to stay away from crazy Cali!

My boring Midwest gets sweeter every day!

I see that you're also located in the Los Angeles area. In some cases, you have to treat your tenants with white gloves. In other words, if your tenants consult an attorney or "free tenant advocacy group", life as you know it will be over in a flash.

I tried to tell several people about Los Angeles Housing and Courts, but they always know better. Besides being a bad landlord/person, all they wanted was their tenants out. Instead of working with them and helping them to find another place to live and help with the moving costs, they offered nothing in return. The tenants filed several reports and got the New Landlord to refund all of the rents they paid to the previous landlord because you are NOT allowed to Collect rents from an illegal unit without a certificate of occupancy and it has to be registered with the RSO (Rent Stabilization).

And my friends still had to pay relocation costs, around $19,000.

So be smart. Consult with attorney and treat your tenants like gold.

And as a contractor, you don't have tear the whole illegal unit down. There are ways to make most of it legal as an office, work area or extension to the existing home, not a guest suite but a den or play room....

Good luck.

Don't get us wrong. We are fine with our tenants as they are, they pay on time and they accept our annual RSO legal rent increases. We would be happy to have them stay....

That said, we'd prefer if they eventually left so we could renovate and (based on our other unit's renovation) increase rents 50%.

Robert, if we are not legally allowed to collect rent, and they can make us refund ALL the rent ever paid, then shouldn't that be motivation for us to get them out amicably as soon as possible? After all, they could at any time wake up and realize that they can reap a huge windfall?

Our simple plan was to put the garage door back into working order for the inspectors to sign off, and then return it back to a wall when the inspectors are gone.

But now I'm thinking that we should tell the tenants that the city won't let us rent that garage as a room and that we are very sorry but we must insist that it not be occupied. We know how difficult this will be so if you decide to move, then we will help with relocation costs. (Pay all relocation costs?)

How does that sound?

I would call the Law Firm of Dennis P. BLock & Associates. He is located in the San Fernando Valley. Phone number 818-986-3147. He should give you "free" advice over the phone about your case. He gets into the office (himself) around 7:30 AM. His phone extension should be 101. Toll Free (800) 77-EVICT or (800) 773-8428. The office otherwise opens at about 10 AM.

Yes, you must get rid of these tenants ASAP. ANd your white lie is a good idea. I usually give my tenants an incentive to leave. It would go something like this:

TO whom it may concern, I have been cited for buying a property with a no-conforming guest area, garage conversion. I need to restore it to a parking area.

To help the occupants re-locate to another property I am offering the following:

If the occupants agree to leave within the next 60 days, I will place in escrow the sum of $5,000. This sum is to be paid upon written surrender, keys being turned over to the new owner and the utilities, if any, being turned off. After a brief inspection revealing no international damage to exceed $200, the funds of $5000 will be paid to the vacated party.

Dennis Block can help you with a form letter....or terms. I wish you luck.....

Thanks Robert,

Just an update. We called Dennis Block and I spoke with a lawyer and he said that if they sue for back rent, in CA, there might be a greater than 50/50 chance of a judge giving them their back rent. That sounds really high! We don't feel like the living conditions are at all "uninhabitable" (as evidence your honor, our tenants have lived there 5 yrs without complaint, and they have accepted rent increases the last three years. also without complaint...).

Anyway, we plan to return the garage to an operating garage, and we've informed them in writing that they are not to use it as a bedroom. We hope they will move out with our offer of relocation assistance. But we don't want to be the "bad guys" in their eyes by asking them to leave. If they are willing to live in the 2/1 apartment with 6 people, who are we to tell them not to? If they continue to live there, how can a judge say we are at fault?

It is unclear how the garage was marketed to them in the first place. If they just made it a bedroom on their own, hen how can we be legally held responsible??