Landlord Breaking Lease With Tenant
I am a Landlord here in CA for almost 6 months now and had this question come up to my mind. Can Lanlords break a lease? If so, what are the consequenses?
I am a Landlord here in CA for almost 6 months now and had this question come up to my mind. Can Lanlords break a lease? If so, what are the consequenses?
Break a lease? In what way? For what reason?
A lease is a contract between two parties. In addition, because it is a contract where there are frequently disputes there is a considerable body of law in the matter. But the bottom line is that by entering into the lease you gave your word to an agreement.
Quote: I am a Landlord here in CA for almost 6 months now and had this question come up to my mind. Can Lanlords break a lease? If so, what are the consequenses?
Just how did you plan on "breaking the lease"? You can't forcably remove the tenants without an eviction, and you can't evict for no reason. The law is going to be on the tenants side. You can go ahead and wipe this idea right out of your mind...
[addsig]
I think you get the drift from the two replies above mine, that we need more info.
But genereally speaking, if you want to break the lease in order to establish some new terms for this tenant, then the answer is no. On the other hand, if by breaking the lease you were referring to evicting the tenant before the end of the lease, then as long as there is cause, and you have everything properly documented, you might be able to do so through a legal eviction process.
In Ohio, if you want to break the lease for nonpayment of rent, you give them at least a three day notice and proceed with an eviction. If it is for any reason other than nonpayment of rent, you have to give them at least a thirty day notice to correct whatever part of the lease that they are not abiding by, and if they do not remedy the problem in that time period, then you proceed with an eviction. 8-)
I know a lot of landlords that don't use anything but a month to month lease. they can be out with 30 days notice.
Your question might as well be: "Can either party to a contract breach it?"
The answer of course is yes, BUT probably has litigation potential and that could be very expensive.
Specially true with the LL/T laws in the so-liberal state of CA and its tenant friendly laws, just like here in WA, et al.
Liberal state legislatures have given the tenant a lot of protection from that 'ol devil landlord and his slumlord friends, including you and me!
[addsig]
Let's say for example the tenant was late for payment and sends a partial payment of their rent instead of paying the whole rent due. Can their lease be terminated?
I think this depends on the lease signed by you and your tenant. I would think that if your lease doesn't allow for partial payments, then any payment less than full payment could be considered non-payment of rent.
What obligations does your lease have for your tenants regarding payment of rent?
(not legal advice, consult professionals, etc. etc.)
Andy
My lease states that the rent is due every (date) of the month and is for $****.**
So it means that the lease is not a partial payment .
What do you want to happen here? If you are looking to terminate the lease for non-payment ( or partial payment) of rent you need to issue a 3-day notice to pay or quit. You can start eviction procedings on the 4th day. In California this is a law suit known as an unlawful detainer. The tenant has 5 days to file an answer to the the unlawful detainer with the court. If the tenant does not file an answer he/she automatically loses and the sheriff will post a notice a notice to move out in 5 days after which, the sheriff will physically remove the tenant.
You did not give much information in your post. I suggest at least talking to the tenant to see what is going on and determine if the tenancy is salvagable. Turnovers are very expensive and you may have a good tenant with a temporary problem.
Well if the tenant has not paid their rent in full then they are in breach of the lease and can be served with notice and evicted. This is not "breaking the lease" as that phrase is normally used. Normally the phrase is used to talk about finding some way out of an otherwise compliant lease because you want to raise rents or something.
Thank you for all your replies
Ok here's the story, the rent is due every 1st of the month, tenant paid part of the rent on the 1st of the month and promised in writting that the difference will be paid on the 28th of the same month. But as of the 30th they haven't made a payment yet. The tenants were already reminded in writting that they haven't paid the difference yet.
What would you do?
Give them a 3 day (or whatever is required by CA law) notice requireing them to pay or quit. If you don't receive payment by the end of the final day, start the eviction process on the next day. This is not breaking the lease. This is enforcing it.
Good luck.
You should contact them by telephone to find out what is going on. Tell them that you gave them time to pay and depending upon what you hear and what you believe, you can give them a 3-day immediately or wait for their next promised deadline. Don't give them very much time and find out why you were not paid on time to begin with. Another thing to consider is what their past payment record has been. Hopefully, this is not their first month of tenancy. If so, you may have flake tenants.
I usually start contacting tenants around the 7th of the month to find out what is going on. In general, I don't allow rental payments to arrive after the 15th without a three day notice unless I am convinced that this is a very unusual circumstance that will be quickly cured.
Another trick that I have learned for CA is to have a paragraph in the lease that states that any monies received from tenant will first apply to outstanding balances such as late fees, bad check fees etc., before being applied to the rent. This way if the tenant owes a late fee and refuses to pay it the next month, the rent check first pays off the late fee leaving a deficit in rent owed. You can evict for lack of rent payment. You cannot evict for lack of late fee payment.
Regards,
Ed
Thanks for all your answers. My tenant just paid me today. I called him this morning and asked what happened, he said that he has a new job and just got paid.
And he was irritated of all the calls/messages I left on his voice mail. I told him, if he paid his rent on time I wouldn't be calling or leaving him any messages. So i told him that I expect the rent on time or I will serve the 3 day Notice.
Thanks again fellow investors/landlords!