All Forum Posts by: Jerome Caldito

I have a Meetup Group in Pasadena area. You should come and see how I am helping new investors just like you. Send me a message with your email.

 In the absence of the lease stating otherwise, the tenant is only required to give 30 days notice.   The LL is required to give a minimum of 30 days if tenant has been less than one year and a minimum of 60 days if tenant has been there over one year (regardless of whether lease indicates the LL can provide shorter notice).  So in your case the LL must give at least 60 days notice, but you only have to give 30 days notice (assuming you are correct that lease does not state otherwise).

note both the tenant and LL are obligated for the lease period, so the notice rules likely do not apply to either party assuming you did not renew into a month to month lease.

The LL really has virtually no power here.  You have a signed lease.  In the absence of the lease excluding anything, your lease is for the items typically conveyed in a lease.  In this case you have rented the yard and driveway (assuming not explicitly indicated otherwise in the lease).  The LL can not simply take away your yard or driveway mid lease any more than they can take away your kitchen.  Similarly, the owner cannot simply decide to turn your rented property into a construction zone.  This materially affects the rent value.

By the way, the addition of the 2 ADUs will not place any of these units under statewide rent control for 15 years (Costa Hawkins); the person who applied otherwise is mistaken. 

Consult with tenant advocate prior to agreeing to anything.  Because you have the power to hold up their plans, you very much are in the stronger position.  You should decide if you want to live through a construction project with substantially reduced rent (significantly more than $100 reduction), if you want to move with the LL paying moving expenses and possibly compensating for the hassle of the move, or if you want to force the owners to honor their lease and start the construction at the end of the current lease (even if you are month to month your lease is for 60 days after LL provides you notice).  

Good luck

Thanks so much! You’ve all been so helpful.

@Theresa Harris@Brady Richard

It’s a home split into a triplex. Our unit takes up the bulk of the house and includes the driveway, garage, and backyard. There are two studios on the side of the house—and those tenants enter the house through a small side entrance, park on the street, and don’t get backyard access.

I don’t trust the owners. There haven’t been major problems like this in the past—but a couple red flags that the owners are inexperienced. (The previous owners hinted these were novice real estate investors. I looked them up and most are recent college grads—not to say you can’t be young and a great landlord.) For example: Before closing, the new owners didn’t tell the previous owners they were sending an inspector—so that was a comedy of errors with the crew wondering if they were in the wrong backyard and us/old PM wondering if we needed to call the cops.

Our rent is $2,450. So we’d save $367.50 + $100/month (if they take our driveway)—which honestly isn’t worth the inconvenience. The blocks around us have recently had an uptick in car break-ins so that’s one of the reason we don’t want to park on the street. I plan on asking for a 30% reduction. They probably won’t go for it but we’ll see.

@Dan H. Yard and driveway aren’t mentioned in the lease. The lease says we get 1 “parking space” and 1 “storage space.” No, no rent control. We’re in LA County—but our city (Pasadena) doesn’t have any rent control policies.

@Jerome Caldito

I do not need cash flow at all right now. But, just starting to review cash flow after reading various books preaching “cash flow”. I rather hold onto this property long term as shortage of affordable housing continue to rise and there is no where in Pasadena to build besides going up. New builds will be expensive, so rather ride this one as there is “value” for renters.

@Jacqueline Chang welcome to the party and thanks for keep this post alive!  Work had gotten busy so I haven't been able to check in to BP as often as I like.  Have you found anything yet?  I had looked at a couple of places with the limited time I have but no fruit yet. The market is so hot now, anything good is either too expensive or gone in a couple of days haha. 

I do have a general questions for the experts here on BP --  would you buy a house that has current renters living in it?  On the one hand, I think it's good that you don't have to worry about renting the rooms out; on the other hand, not sure whether I'd inherit any problem by doing that.  I saw a few listing like these and some of them doesn't even allow home tours, not sure if that's a red flag.