Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in California

Contracts/ illegal roommates

Two persons are on a lease for a year with an apartment complex. One extra person moves in, and is living there illegally at this point (not on the lease after 8 weeks due to not having a job or money). This third person is still not paying rent, and his/her significant other who is on the lease is trying to pay less for rent than the original verbal agreement of the 3 people. Because of this, the second original leased tenant said in a text/ SMS message that s/he is going to move out/ have his/her name taken off the lease/ sublease.

After finding that s/he was also being stolen from by the two tenants, s/he decided to revoke this 'text message contractual offer' and stay/ have the illegal tenant kicked out instead, also because the 3rd person still has not signed on the lease (now 11 weeks).

If one of the persons on the lease states via a text/ SMS message that they are moving out before the lease is terminated for being put in a bad legal situation due to the third new person, may the other individual on the lease take that person to court for deciding not to move out as stated in a text message(they found a replacement who still has not applied for the lease)?


Asked on 3/05/09, 1:29 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
George Shers Law Offices of Georges H. Shers

Re: Contracts/ illegal roommates

The third person was not living there "illegally" unless the lease prohibited anyone but the lessees from living there. The lease can not legally be broken without the landlord's consent; if the landlord knew the facts of what was going on, he would not let that person out of the lease. What are the damages to the other tenants from that person not moving out--probably no damages so can not file a successful case. It also appears that the other tenanats did not rely upon the text message. Contracts do not have to be in writing; unless a Code section requires an agreement to be written, all agreement are valid, but it is earier to prove a written one.

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Answered on 3/05/09, 3:53 pm


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