State Specific Question About: CALIFORNIA (CA)

The 3 day notice to end a contract does not appy to rental agreements, at least not in Cal.

plenty, what do you suppose the LL do with the house in those 20-30 days?

You should not have taken a check. That check could be bad, then she would have a signed lease with you and the keys and you would have to spend MONTHS evicting her. Nothing but cash or post office money order (too many fraudulent other money orders.

At the landlords peril, they are certainly allowed to take a personal check for funds. What's the crime? She was not scheduled to move in until Jan. 5 which is why I took a personal check. She has no key as yet, deposit funds only paid thus far. I do have the right to charge her rent for the days it remains unrented after the 5th.

At the landlords peril, they are certainly allowed to take a personal check for funds. What's the crime? She was not scheduled to move in until Jan. 5 which is why I took a personal check. She has no key as yet, deposit funds only paid thus far. I do have the right to charge her rent for the days it remains unrented after the 5th.

I had a nice house for rent in an excellent area in Woodland Hills California. I had just completely remodeled the property. A professional women, with a six digit salary wanted to rent this 4 bedroom 1575 square foot house. She was going to surprise her fiance, they needed a place they could call their own -- getting married in six months.

The women filled out an application, provided pay stubs and letters or recommendation. She checked out and then signed a lease the next day, giving me a cashier's check. Once I cashed the check I put a lock-box on the door with her keys.

The next day she took her boyfriend to the house, surprise. It was a surprise for her. The guy was still married and got back together with his wife.

My tenant, that never moved into the house but had the keys for 2 days wanted out of her lease.

I explained that I was NOT allowed to charge double rent. I will try to re-rent the house and then give her a pro-rated refund, less my costs to re-run adds. Her father was an attorney and called me screaming in my ear. I told the dad that since he wasn't a Real Estate Attorney, his professional opinion was not valid or correct.

The women tenant and her father said, they are going to sue and not return the keys. I told them that until they return the keys and give me written proof they are not taking the house, I can't try to re-rent it. They consulted with a real estate attorney, returned the keys.

It took me two weeks to get someone else in the house. I felt bad for her. So I didn't charge her for the add's or re-keying the house. She got half of her rent back and full deposit.

Sounds like a very fair way to handle it. Good for you.

I'm hoping I can re-rent quickly and be able to give her all her money back. I've already told her that she would be on the hook for days of rent that it remains unrented after the 5th. Not looking forward to listing it again and vetting again but one must do what one must do. At least the rental market is super strong around here.

FYI...once she has signed a rental agreement she has rights to the house, whether she has moved in or not. If the check she wrote bounced, but she had not yet moved in, you could NOT prevent her from moving in, or legally rerent the place when she had a signed lease for it. She would have to VOLUNTARILY agree to terminate the lease, or you would have had to go to the court system to terminate the lease.

But she doesn't have possession until she gets the keys, no funds, no keys.

A deposit to secure the terms of the lease is due and payable at signing. Rental agreement stipulates that rents be paid in advance and her move in date is Jan. 5. If she doesn't pay her rent in exchange for keys on Jan. 5, she is in breech and I certainly don't have to provide her possession at that time until she lives up to her part of the agreement.

That may all be true, but you still have to go to court to get that lease clause enacted. The lease does not give you the right to a self help eviction. Once you go to court and that clause is held up in court, then you can exercise the lease clause. Denying access to a property when someone has a valid lease is setting yourself up to be sued and lose. Go to court, present the bounced check, and follow the process. Which will take time. That is why you do not let someone sign a lease with a check, because the check can bounce and you have to take them to court to enforce the lease.

Just like if someone does not pay the rent, they do NOT lose immediate access to the property, even though the lease says rent is due xxxx. You have to take them to court & get them evicted. To just change the locks on them would be a self help eviction , just like not giving someone with a signed lease the keys would be a self help eviction.

Ask the Experts: There's no grace period after signing a lease

Posted Jul 29, 2015

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By The Republican

Editor’s note: This is the latest in a series of monthly columns that address readers’ questions on legal topics. Please send your questions to Ask the Experts, The Republican, P.O. Box 1329, Springfield, MA 01102-1329, or email to news@repub.com with “Ask the Experts” in the subject line.

Q. Is there a time period after signing a lease during which the landlord or tenant can change their mind and get out of the lease?

A. No, if the tenant or landlord is looking to get out of the lease on their own and only because they've changed their mind. A lease agreement is a binding contract between a tenant and landlord that can only be rescinded for certain reasons. For example, if the parties agree to rescind the contract, both the tenant and landlord can get out of the lease. Alternatively, if the lease included a provision that allowed one party to unilaterally terminate and rescind the contract, then that party could get out of the lease. Otherwise, a party is only able to get out of the lease if the other party breached the terms of the agreement.

2010 michael goveMichael S. Gove

There are many ways either party could breach the terms of a lease. For tenants, the most common breaches of a lease are the failure to pay rent, the failure to maintain the property, and the failure to abide by lease terms including those which prohibit smoking, excessive noise, or pets. For landlords, the most common breaches of a lease are the failure to maintain the property in compliance with the state sanitary code, and the failure to avoid (or the creation of) impositions on the tenant's quiet enjoyment or maintenance of the property.

Sometimes, in negotiating the lease, the landlord may not be truthful about the tenancy. If the landlord committed fraud in negotiating the lease, or misrepresented a material fact regarding the lease, the tenant may be able to terminate and rescind the lease agreement. To show a landlord committed fraud, the tenant would have to prove the landlord knew (or should have known) their statements were incorrect, that the landlord had an intent to deceive the tenant, and that the fact in question was material to the terms of the tenancy. An example might be a major misrepresentation about the size of, or number of, bedrooms in the leased unit.

There may be other circumstances why a landlord or tenant cannot fulfill the terms of the lease agreement which are so extreme that a court would excuse performance by a party. These reasons may include acts of God or nature (including the destruction of the rented unit), the impossibility of performance by a party, or the death of a party.

If you refuse to meet your obligations under a lease (whether as the landlord or the tenant), you may be subject to damages to the other party. For example, if a tenant failed to pay their rent, a landlord would be able to seek those rent payments in court.

If a rental unit was unavailable when the lease agreement stated, a tenant may be able to seek expenses or moving costs related to the landlord's failure to provide the contracted space. Each situation should be analyzed by an experienced attorney to determine the potential risk of damages.

This response was prepared by Michael S. Gove, a member of the Massachusetts Bar Association's Business Law Section and Young Lawyers Division, with the assistance of Brittany Hinojosa, a third year law student at Western New England University School of Law. Gove is an attorney with Gove Law Office in Northampton and Ludlow, where his practice focuses on assisting clients in the areas of corporate and business law, estate planning and administration, real estate matters and special education advocacy.

My receipt for deposit (or earnest money) states:

Allowing tenants to pay the security deposit or any other type of deposit by personal check is not a good idea, even if they won't move in for another month or two. Requiring a cashier's check lets them know the money is PAID, period. You won't encounter the situation you just had, with them calling back the next day - or the next hour - wanting to get out of the contract.

Because once the lease is signed, it's a contract, and as others have said, the lease dictates how the contract can be terminated. My lease has a clause saying the lease can be cancelled by paying two months' rent. If your situation had happened to me, I would have informed the tenant of this clause.

If the lease has no such clause, it's likely you will have to make efforts to re-rent the property and "mitigate your damages". Tenant will be liable for rent - and utilities, I would think - from the date the lease term begins, to the date it is re-rented.

I give all applicants a copy of my lease so they have plenty of time to read it before it is signed. Tenants who don't bother to read it do so at their own peril. Letting tenants pay deposits by personal check may give them the impression you are "casual" or even "foolish" because you accept the personal check on the assumption it will clear. Why take any chance at all? If the check bounces a week later before they've moved in, sure, you now know they are deadbeats. But you've lost a week or more of time, your listing is now "stale" and you are back to looking for another tenant.

Thanks for all the responses. Tenant's check cleared. I kept a full month's rent to cover the days it remains unrented after the existing tenant moves out. Plan to refund her the balance when it rents. That's fair and reasonable in my mind.