All Forum Posts by: Richard Ma

An even better idea:

1. Get instructions from your bank to set up direct deposit so your tenant can pay electronically without you ever seeing them;

2. Give them deposit slips so they can drop payment off at the bank;

3. Mount a secure box in the garage and instruct tenant to drop money orders or cashiers checks in the box.

This sounds like a personality conflict. Mom should know what forms of payment are allowed. If she doesn't, then she has no business collecting rent. Entering the yard without permission is a violation of the Tenant's right to quiet enjoyment, but there are exceptions to that.

I don't see enough information here to determine who's at fault. I would probably ignore the letter and focus on being the best Landlord you can be.

@Richard Ma sounds like they got good advice from the tenant union. Yeah be careful, this is SF.

 In ca, and every state I am aware of, no rental contract implies month to month lease.  In most states you would be able to provide notification of lease termination with a month or two notification but …

In California multiplexes over 15 years old (I am assuming your units are older than 15 years) are rent controlled.  The landlord has only a few legal reasons for a “no fault” lease termination.  The two most common are to move an immediate family member into the unit or to rehab the unit where the rehab is such that it is unreasonable for tenant to reside in the unit during rehab.  A no fault termination requires landlord to provide one month rent to the tenant.  In the absence of meeting a criteria for no fault termination, you cannot legally get rid of the tenant if they are paying the rent and following the lease (which you have no lease so they are automatically in compliance with the lease). 

My recommendation is that you interview property managers and hire one immediately.  Loosing a tenant suite could cost you much more than the cost of a professional property manager.  I suspect the PM may run efficiently enough that your actual cost will be very small and there is a chance that you will actually increase your cash flow.  I state this because many/most poorly self-managed properties 1) do not do rent surveys and do not know market rent and therefore are often charging far below market rent, 2) do not have reliable, competent, reasonably priced handymen/contractors and therefore often overpay for maintenance/cap ex items 3) do not know the housing laws and therefore can get sued by tenant, fined by the housing authority, or taken advantage by the tenant. 

Do you know AB1482?   If you choose to ignore my advise about hiring a competent, professional PM, make sure you know the rent control ordinance.  

by the way there is a Property Manager Certification.  This certification would be a good first screening criteria. 

Good luck

It really depends, (clue: not likely) 

What does it say?