Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California
Our RV Park in our little town was sold to a gentleman who asked a tenant to hold the keys for 2 days until he put in place a property manager. The tenant put an office sign in front of his space, posted prices for the facilities and began to take in money and pocet it. I delivered a notice to tenant to surrender keys to me a Realtor and to close down the Park temporarily. The owner also called the tenant and I delivered the letter. the tenant and his wife would not surrender keys and kept doing unauthorized business.. I went over with the sheriff from our little community who stated to me it was a civil matter and the sheriff had no right to say or do anything.. he would not tell them it was illegal or to stop business and leave my closed signs up.. he refused to even mention the breaking of any law in their presence.. and yet today he advised them in our presence that since I took photos of the Park and their vehicles, they may be able to get a restraining order again me for trespassing.. this officer reinforced the thief.. and he is part of my neighborhool watch program in our rural area.. he kept telling me he could do nothing because it was a civil matter and he was not even allowed to tell them it was illegal to have hijacked this mans RV Park.. what is the sheriff's duty here.. if this is the case, they should assign us an attorney and fire this sheriff.. your take please. What is the sheriff's obligation??? Thank you.. Brenda
3 Answers from Attorneys
The sherrif's obligation is none. The new owner did things that cloaked the tenant with apparent authority to manage the park. You now need to hire a lawyer and get a court order against the tenant before the police or sheriff can do anything.
What the tenant was doing MIGHT be rent skimming, which can be criminal if there are multiple instances. Rent skimming is covered by the Civil Code, sections 890 to 893. There is a somewhat similar provision in the Penal Code, section 602.9 I believe. It is a misdemeanor, and should be of interest to law enforcement, However, there are some serious practical issues before we can decide that the activity was criminal, including exactly what permission or authority the new owner gave this guy, what the guy's intent was, what he did with the money he collected, how many people he collected from, and whether the spaces in the RV park qualify as residential units. I'm not entirely sure how much latitude a deputy sheriff is given to decide that a matter is "civil" and that he should not take a report and let the DA decide if there is a prosecutable offense, but it seems to me the officer should at least have taken a report, Or, Mr. McCormick may be right, but I think he is jumping to his conclusion.
The sheriff should have arrested you, for making false claims. What business is it of yours that the new owner has selected a tenant to assist him in managing the RV park? You fail to establish anything in your post other than that you are a nuisance.
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