Tenant Hoarding in Shared Courtyard

[Natalie D.]

Hi, 

New to being a landlord and property owner in SF. The 3 unit property I purchased with a friend has tenants who have lived in the largest unit for nearly 20 years. They have a one page lease that was month to month with minimal information on it. It just says they are renting the unit, who is living in it, and what they are paying. 

In the last 20 years they have been using the shared courtyard as their personal storage space, which resembles a junkyard. Things are stacked so densely against walls of the courtyard (consists of walls from the garage, house, and fence) that you can’t inspect the outdoor walls (this was in the inspection report). 

I asked them to clear away things not used daily (such as bikes and work supplies) so that we could protect the property and allow all tenants to use the shared courtyard. They only cleared one wall. 

I was thinking as a next step, I would buy small sheds, and request everything be stored in there and nothing could be outside of the sheds moving forward. I figured I would give them a time frame of 30 days to relocate items into the shed. 

1) Is that okay for me to do? 
2) If they don’t move their things into the sheds, am I allowed to dispose of or move things after 30 days?

[Corby Goade]

Honestly, not a good plan. You asked them to clean it up and they didn't, so your solution is to do the work for them and pay for it yourself? Why on earth would you do that?

Serve them a 3 day notice to cure or quit. Take action and force their hand. Their ostebsibly violating your lease, so enforce it. This is why you have a lease in the first place. 

Also- in most states, certainly in California, you can get in serious legal trouble for disposing of a tenant's personal property regardless of the situation. Even with evictions and abandonment, there are plenty of situations where landlords have been successfully sued by prior tenants for dumping their stuff that they left behind. In my state, a landlord is required to store personal items for a minimum of 18 months before disposing of it.