Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California
Illegitimate Lease?
I recently purchased a short sale
property. Before close, it turns out
that ''tenants'' appeared who claim
to have signed a lease with neither
the owner nor I. The prior owner
has no knowledge of them. But it
appears that the listing agent was
the one to give them the keys. How
do I get rid if them? Must I treat
them like tenants?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Illegitimate Lease?
A person occupying real property can be there in any of four (I think) capacities: Owner, tenant, guest or trespasser. There are subcategories within each category on this list.
Most kinds of guest become trespassers when asked to leave. These people may be guests who are now trespassers, but absent better information, the eviction process (notice followed by an unlawful detainer action) is the safest path to follow, because you will end up with a writ of possession and the expectation of help from the sheriff, unless the "guests" respond and show up in court with a good story (very unlikely).
My guess is that the "guests" signed a lease, or at least paid rent, to someone (the agent) who had no right to do so. This is illegal rent skimming under Civil Code section 890(a)(2) and may subject the agent to criminal penalties if he or she has committed multiple acts of rent skimming.
Doing an eviction via the unlawful detainer route is relatively cheap, quick and easy and has the advantage of working well against multiple categories of unwanted persons.
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