apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Paying any owed rent, making monetary amends for any damage and getting rid of people/animals living in the apartment with you who shouldn't be there usually solves the problem.

I can't believe there is actually a 3 day eviction!!!! Everywhere I've lived the landlord has to give 30 days notice and most of the time you can dispute that and continue to live there for an additional 3MONTHS!!!!!!! So sorry, so so sorry!

You can call the Housing Rights Center at 1-800-477-5977 and they should be able to help you. I think your chances of fighting and winning really depend on the reason for the eviction.

www.hrc-la.org

Damn girl, whadja do?

The legal stuff c&p'd above & the hotlines are your best bet, but if you know any attorneys, it's time to call in some favors and bring some righteous hellfire on your landlord if you think this is in error.

Also, I'd take this as a pretty good sign that you're never getting your deposit back, so if you get to stay, and you've ever wanted to paint your place midnight blue/wallpaper/create built-in bookshelves, GO FOR IT.

3 DAYS??? When we got the standard 60 day eviction notice here in Sydney we were freaked out enough. That is just reprehensible. I wish you the best of luck with this, and that renters unite to get the law changed in California!

Speaking of the deposit, make sure you receive an itemized bill. Unless you owe a significant amount of money after vacating or the place is left with significant damage, there are not a whole lot of reasons left for them to keep all of the deposit. Am itemized bill is required, plus it makes it easier to tell if you've been ripped off.

I just received my deposit back from our last apartment. When we asked our previous landlord exactly how much our pro-rated rent would be he told us that he would have to "double check" and rather than pay him then, it would be easier to simply have it taken off of our deposit. Sure. When we got our deposit back, he charged us a late fee. Not only did he charge us double the normal late fee, he claimed we paid a $1000 deposit rather than the $1200 deposit we actually paid. This on top of being overcharged for the cleaning bill (i.e. a ridiculous amount for cabinet and blind cleaning which were filthy when I moved in and scrubbed before moving out!) left us furious.

Measures will be taken. Renters beware. I can't even imagine how poor Nancy feels, innocent or no!

I have never been licensed in California, but pretty much everywhere in the U.S., you have a right to a notice and a hearing before you can lose your tenancy.

The law builds up over time. What was once adequate, i.e., a "three day notice," may no longer be adequate as case law, local law, state statutes, and constitutional standards evolve. However, that step in the eviction process may continue to be called a "three day notice," and landlords post it as such, causing infinite panic.

Any time you get a legal notice like this, call a lawyer.

If you're broke, it's a good time to look for a legal aid or legal services office. In the meantime, google the law online and try to get a rough idea of your rights. Suggested search: name of your state plus the phrase "landlord tenant law."

In NYC, they have a "five day's notice," which is a really serious thing. It issues only after a court proceeding has been held and it means that a local marshal can show up and move your stuff out at any time after the expiration of five days. But let me stress -- that happens only after you have had a chance to appear in court and explain your side of the story.

Although the landlord/tenant laws of New York City are a thing of wonder, I would be very surprised if California law did not give you a right to a hearing.

People need to educate themselves on their right to get their deposit back. Many jurisdictions require landlords to pay interest on deposits held, which cuts down on the requiring of huge sums for deposit. It's trouble to keep track of that interest.

Also, you have recourse if a landlord wrongly withholds your deposit. Take the landlord to small claims court. You don't need a lawyer. Small claims court is designed to be user friendly in most jurisdictions -- the clerk at the court should help you file your claim.

I Am Not A Lawyer (IANAL) but I agree with the posters above about contacting legal assistance, if you show a judge that you are paying at least part of your back rent (I'm assuming you are being evicted for rent and not because you are violating some other aspect of your contract with your landlord) the court will intervene on your behalf. The state has a vested interest in preventing people from getting thrown out in the street, even to the extent that they will infringe on the landlord's property rights for a period of time. With this breathing room, I'd recommend you figure out a way to pay off your back rent and also move into a less expensive living situation.

I'm glad I don't own rental property here in NY. Seems that the tenant has more rights than the owner. Friends say it's six months or more to get rid of a nuisance renter.

(Gee, guess I'll have to check out runescape. Reference to an earlier nonsensical spam posting that may or may not have been deleted.)

I don't live in California but I know a 3-day eviction can happen in Indiana - and it's greatly enforced to the point where you will be walked off the property at the end of the 72 hrs.

Ok, I have to chime in as a property manager in Orange County. The three day notice would either be a "Three Day Notice to Pay or Quit" or a "Three Day Notice to Perform or Quit". In either case you have done something to breech your contract, either not paying the agreed upon rent in a timely fashion, or breeching some other stipulation in your lease. In which case you have 3 days to rectify the offense, after which time the notice and any proof of service is sent to an evictions attorney. The attorney then has to serve you with non-compliance papers. Once their process server gets the proof of service back on that the attorney goes to court for a judgment on the matter at hand. After this, if the court finds that you are in fact in breech of your contract, the attorney will set up a date with the sheriff to do a lock out. This usually occurs a week or week and a half after the court ruling. The total eviction process usually takes about a month. However, that being said, we usually let our tenants pay, if that's the offense, up until the day before lock out.

I would contact an attorney or some sort of legal aid and figure out what you can do about the notice. Also, please do not, whatever you do, follow Chester Shoeshine's advise if you get to stay in the property. If you permanently alter the property, or paint it a dark color and don't return it to the original color upon vacating the property you are still liable for all damages. Your landlord can take you to court over the charges and eventually put you up to a collections agency, which will result in a mark on your credit.

Also, if you're looking at being evicted, it's much better to leave the property before the eviction process is completed. An eviction will also show up on your credit.

"Also, if you're looking at being evicted, it's much better to leave the property before the eviction process is completed. An eviction will also show up on your credit."

This I agree with. Sometimes it's better to suck it up and leave rather than fight and if you are in the wrong, being thrown out anyways. It is very legal to have a 3-day eviction - there is a chance you can get it changed, but if not, do you really want to chance having your things removed for you (which means they break it, you lose situation) and pretty much dumped into the cheapest storage center they can find?

http://www.expressevictions.com/3-day-notice.php
http://www.dca.ca.gov/publications/landlordbook/terminations.shtml

Gee I hope this wasn't a question sent in a week or month ago...

Good luck, and keep us posted!

It's not a 3 day eviction, it's a 3 day notice to pay up or quit the premises. That's a big difference.

I evict a good number of people each year from both commercial and residential rentals and the eviction attorney I use for evictions is top notch.

The way to fight a 3 day notice is by providing proof that you paid your rent. A copy of a cancelled check deposited by your landlord or anything that would prove you paid your rent sent by certified mail to where the Notice to Pay or Quit details would resolve your 3 day notice or to the attorney.

If for some reason you paid your rent and the check was not deposited or there is no record of deposit, stop payment on the check and then reissue your rent check and send it to either to where the Notice to Pay or Quit details would resolve your 3 day notice or to the attorney.

There is, however, no way to fight your eviction if in fact you did not pay your rent. It does not matter if some repairs were not made or if you have a leaky roof that hasn't been fixed or if you're pissed at your landlord for not dealing with some complaint. To resolve issues like that you can once a year deduct from your rent the cost of a repair and provide the receipt for the repair that proves you are deducting the actual cost of the repair that you paid for (usually required landlord approval unless in extreme negligence cases). A leaky roof or any other issues with habilitability needs to be resolved by detailed correspondence with a demand for repairs and whatever requested rent deduction you want if it's an ongoing issue. A reminder that they are violating tenant law and that you will pursue legal action under the habitability clauses of tenant law will usually have them quickly resolving the issue and the requested rent deduction will be up for negotiation.

In short, there is no way to get out of a 3 day notice if you actually did not pay your rent for any reason unless you were given expressed written notice that you were allowed to take some form of rent deduction.

Good luck!

Is this a design site or legal aid for apartment dwellers? Failure to pay rent is a problem with only two solutions, which are obvious: pay up or get out. If the landlord resorted to a three-day eviction notice, it's pretty clear that there's been rather egregious behavior on the part of the tenant, no?

Here are some great resources here in LA and California.

Coalition for Economic Survival
http://www.cesinaction.org/

California Tenant Law
http://www.caltenantlaw.com/

http://www.landlordsresourcedirectory.com/California.htm

shanalulu, we don't know the circumstances of the eviction notice. Doesn't it seem rather mean-spirited to assume the worst of Nancy? She could have a lousy landlord. We just don't know.

As for the complaint about the post being off topic, well, no one's making you read posts that don't interest you. There's nothing wrong with an occasional post about non-design topics if they're of interest to apartment dwellers.

Nancy, I hope things are getting better for you. Good luck.

Srsly, what did you do?

ya, that's really the burning question here isn't it... what was on the notice that caused them to submit it to you in the first place!!! otherwise it's just a lot of conjecture, and having been on both sides of this table in CA, I know how it feels, but i would hate to think we're all being duped into helping you try to weasel out of something,

@shanalulu who said "Is this a design site or legal aid for apartment dwellers?

You've answered your own question there; the site is called Apartment Therapy, not Decor Therapy. The blog has fielded questions about utility bills, noise problems, garbage smells, pest controls issues, etc.

None of these questions concern the design of someone's home, but are clearly within the scope of the site. If you don't care for such posts, then you simply may skip reading them.

Let's not assume anything.

I had a coworker that lived in a building where they would get a 3 day eviction notice from the owner automatically if the rent wasn't in by the 5th. We worked for a non-profit that always was late with paychecks and he had to harrass them each month to make sure he wouldn't get evicted.

Sometimes there are really rigid managers or owners. You never know what the circumstances are.

Good luck in any case, moving sucks when you're unprepared for it.

Eviction as I know is for the most part voluntary. It is illegal to lockout. Basically, bide time until you have a court date.

I wish that we knew how this tale ended!