Acquiring Tenants and Need Guidance on How to Best Handle

[Daniela Damjanoski]

I just purchased a property that has two homes in San Diego, CA. We will be living in one and the other one is already rented out. There are tenants in there that have been on a month-to-month lease as they sellers knew that they would be selling. What do I need to do to get them on a lease? Can it be a short-term lease (i.e., 3 months)? Also, what if I wanted to give them notice. Is it 60 days and how do I go about doing that? Do I need to hire a lawyer to give them notice or to create a new lease for me. Any guidance and advice is appreciated.

[Brianna Billings]

Hi Daniela!

Congratulations, that's so exciting! I’m not a lawyer, but wanted to share what I’ve learned as a landlord and homeowner in California with some additional research too.

California Civil Code §1946 outlines the requirements for terminating month-to-month tenancy. For tenants who have resided in the unit for 1 year or more, a 60-day written notice is required. If the tenancy is less than a year, a 30-day notice suffices. Note: there are specific requirements to make this legal including it be in writing., include the date of service and the effective date of termination, state clearly that the tenancy will end, and it can be delivered personally or via certified mail with return receipt requested.

Since you are living on site, you are likely exempt from the just cause eviction rules under AB 1482. This means you don’t need a specific reason to evict so you can issue a 60-day notice to terminate the tenancy (if they’ve lived there over a year).

Here is a good article on it too: https://caanet.org/dont-forget-to-provide-the-required-notic... 

Another question would be if you have been able to see the current tenants payment history, credit reports, etc to make sure you want to continue renting to them? I personally like to have tenants with really good credit, stable jobs, good landlord references, etc. to make sure they are reliable tenants before signing them on long term. Also, do you have access to their current lease so you can see if there are any specific added terms in there?

Lastly, if you end up needing a new lease: For my leases, I used the standard one from a site called Avail. This is a leasing platform that allows you send and Docusign leases, collect security deposits, track payments, complete background checks, view credit scores etc. If you are newly listing a home for rent, it even posts it out to all of the platforms for you, and automates the application process. I rented out my La Mesa property to long term tenants for about 4 years, and have had one turnover (my initial tenants moved to Hawaii). It has been hugely beneficial for me throughout these last few years!

Hopefully that was helpful, let me know if you have any follow up questions!

Brianna