Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California
I was evicted due to non-payment of a fee that my apartment complex charged us. However, I have never seen this fee previously and have never paid it. Therefore, we neglected to pay this charge. Now we are evicted, what should I do?
Furthermore, the eviction came 3 days prior to the expiration of our lease. We had been paying monthly late fees if we paid rent late. However, on the last full month, after missing the due date, the complex made it so that we were unable to make regular payments online. They informed us that the entire due amount had to be paid off at once (including the unknown fee), which we informed them we would not until they could provide clear explanation of this fee.
I am wondering if I have a case...
1 Answer from Attorneys
Your post has a smell to it. Not a good smell either. It's the smell of BS.
In order to be evicted, your landlord would have had to serve you with a three (3) day notice to pay or quit. A three (3) day notice to pay or quit for a late fee is invalid. After the 3 days expired, the landlord would have had to file an unlawful detainer complaint, and have you served with it along with a summons. In addition, to prevent fraud, the court would have mailed you a notice that the summons and complaint in unlawful detainer had been filed against you.
After the landlord got a judgment for possession, the sheriff would have served you with a writ of possession. Then you would have been evicted.
It's incredibly hard for me to believe that all of this happened and you just now discovered this and want to defend this.
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