Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Well first she must probate his estate and become the owner of the property. At that point she must honor the oral agreement if it was legal when made. An oral agreement to lease land cannot be for longer than a year, unless it is month to month with no specified end date. So if the lease was for a year or less, she must wait until it is up to change the terms. If it was month to month, she can chage the terms on 30-days notice if the tenant has been in posession less than a year, or 60 days if the tenant has been there over a year. If the tenant claims it was a lease of more than a year, it is voidable at her option.

Whether or not she has to go through probate depends on how title was held. If title to the property was held in joint tenancy, or community property with right of survivorship, then she owns it automatically as a matter of law, without the necessity of probate. The transfer can also avoid probate if it was held in trust.

At this point, all that is clear is that your grandfather's estate is the landlord. A lease may be oral or in writing. A lease agreement for a term of more than one year (meaning a lease that by its terms will exceed one year) is generally required to be in writing. But a month to month lease that is oral will be valid, even if the tenant has been living there for more than a year. There are also some tricky exceptions to the statute of frauds (which is what Mr. McCormick is referring to.)

Even if the oral lease was invalid by its terms, I seriously doubt that a court would say that there was no landlord tenant relationship. It seems to me that the court would hold that the tenancy was a month to month tenancy.

You or your grandmother may want to consult over these issues with an attorney before taking any type of legal action.