It takes months and thousands of $ to evict a tenant.
Yes it is a myth, at least in CA.
From an ex-Landlord.
Please note that there is a BIG, BIG difference in eviction law in CA when dealing with a person renting out an entire property (i.e. an apartment or a house), versus someone renting out a room in an existing property owned by another person.
Eviction law towards a property sucks huge ass, and is geared towards protecting a tenant. Yes, if the tenant knows the system, they can get up to 120 days of free living in a property, due to the required 30-day, 60 day, 30-day warrant service, pattern that has to be followed. But there must be a legally binding document showing a vested interest in the property for this to work. An apartment or house rental agreement is such a document.
For someone renting a room, where they are not on the lease or ownership document, it is much easier, as they are not considered a tenant under the law (very simplified explanation). If they are not on the lease, you can ask them to leave your house, and they have little recourse.
This is a simplified explanation. Google it if you need a further detailed explanation.
(It is cases like this that made me an ex-landlord).
My sister broke her leg. (She fell off of the ramp on her porch, or something.) She’s in a rehab hospital for the next couple of months.
The Harpy said she was going to move out… But now she’s ‘helping’ around the house, and being nice to my sister in the hospital. :rolleyes: Last week (?) she hit my 18-year-old autistic nephew. My sister said she apologised, and my nephew accepted it. I tried to file an APS report when sis went into the hospital, but they said she’s in a safe environment and can’t take a report while she’s there. I tried to get in touch with one of the hospital’s social workers, and finally called the Administrator Monday. Then a social worker called. She talked to my sister yesterday, and called me today. She says there’s not much she can do other than to counsel my soft-hearted sister to take action when she gets home. She said that when my sister is released, she’ll file an APS report for my sister, and also tell them that The Harpy hit my nephew, and follow up with me then. In the meantime, I need to keep on my sister to buck up.
Sis likes to see the best in people – even ones who abuse her. It’s a classic ‘beaten spouse’ syndrome. If I was in her living situation, I’d be getting all Machiavellian on The Harpy. Sis doesn’t think that way. She said The Harpy is ‘pitiful’. I told her, ‘No, she’s not. She’s a manipulator and a user. She knows exactly what she’s doing.’ :mad:
venting over
Stay on your sister to file that report. When your sister is comes home you can tell the Harpy to get out, that you’re calling CPS, and if she doesn’t leave a restraining order will keep her out. Good luck with all of this. You and your sister and your nephew shouldn’t need to deal with this crap, I hate people like the Harpy and the messed up lives they try to infect others with. Misery loves company, but it’s a sickness when a miserable person wants to create misery in others to have that company. What I would say next is just too inappropriate for a public forum but I’m sure you’re having the same feelings.
I found it by searching Arietta plus eviction. But it was a little different than you remember it - or maybe it wasn’t explained to you properly. The issue wasn’t exactly that Arrieta didn’t know about the non-payment of rent (apparently she paid the rent after the first month, so presumably it was she who stopped paying the rent) - it was that she wasn’t given notice of the proceeding and was therefore unable to raise any defenses to the non-payment.
And it would appear that the loophole has been closed since your experience. That search also produced results detailing procedures that seem to result in an Arietta claim delaying the eviction by two weeks or so, rather than starting from scratch.
Johnny, I know nothing about this and I don’t live in California. However, my first thought was, and I think it has been mentioned that getting Power of Attorney seems like a reasonable thing to do especially if your sister has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. You had also mentioned about protective services and if this harpy is being mentally or psychologically abusive to your sister or her family then someone needs to be keeping a watchful eye on things. Please keep us posted, it pisses me off that your sister and her loved ones have to deal with this and people like the harpy are so self absorbed imo they just don’t realize the domino effect it has on everyone else, you and Mrs. LA included.
The first thing I would be concerned about is your sister money, credit cards checking accounts etc . You should made sure the Harpy doesn’t have access to her money if they’re are abusing her they could very well be stealing money from her too. If your sister is an elderly person and is being abused by the Harpy you need to
call Elderly services and they’ll help you find the right lawyer to help you. Elderly abuse is a crime .
A handfull of big cities (and sometimes the states that house them, like CA) have insanely protective laws towards tenants. People who know how to game the system can definitely get months, and sometimes years of free or low-cost rent, and attempting an eviction without a knowledgeable lawyer will almost never work. On the flip side, a lot of less populated states have almost no tenant protections, and you can legally be evicted almost without warning if you have a bad landlord. Other states are in the middle, where there are tenant protections but if someone isn’t paying rent you can get them out after a month or two, and they technically owe you the rent for those months too. The ‘piled on the sidewalk’ thing generally can only happen after months of non-payment, multiple notices posted on the door, and a court case.
On the HBO show, Silicon Valley, one of the characters has been living rent-free since he figured out that eviction can supposedly take up to a year.
Jing-Yang!!!
Actually that would be the best case scenario. Banks will reimburse any money stolen from your credit card, but the Harpy goes to jail! Problem solved!
OK, The Harpy is a ‘niece’ (sis and her ‘husband’ aren’t married). I probably knew this, but I forgot.