The bottom line is that the UD process is not what it used to be, and our previous strategies either no longer apply or no longer work.
Courts were closed for anywhere from three months to eight months. Most of them are still working on clearing their backlogs. The state has imposed new rules and procedures, and courts are still implementing them. This has resulted in delays by the courts and longer processing times all around.
Legal Aid organizations [including BASTA] have received additional state and/or federal funding to “assist with preventing homelessness”. Courthouse self-help centers are referring more tenants to these organizations, and these organizations always demand a jury trial, they are more aggressive now, and their settlement demands are higher now [longer time to move out, higher dollar amounts to pay to the tenant for relocation expenses].
As of today, the Los Angeles court system is assigning all jurors to criminal trials, and they hope to be able to assign jurors to civil trials [including UD trials] in December or January. This is not a guaranteed timeline though. Orange County, and most other counties, are further ahead in the timeline than Los Angeles County.
Because of the additional delays and expense of UD trials or settlement in the current climate, we recommend you review your procedures related to tenancies as follows:
1. Service of notices – CA law requires that you attempt to personally serve any notices on the tenants before resorting to other methods of service. You must also attempt service both at the residence address AND at the tenants’ place/s of employment, if known. Check your rental applications. Does the tenant still work there? If so, you are required to go there and attempt personal service before moving to the next step.
If you can’t personally serve the tenant at the residence or at the tenants’ place/s of employment, you are next required to attempt to leave a copy of the notice with some person of suitable age and discretion [an adult is preferred, older teen is acceptable] at either place, and mailing a copy to the tenant addressed to the place of residence.
Only if the above two methods don’t work are you allowed to “post and mail”. Posting must be done on a conspicuous place on the premises, usually by taping the notice to the middle of the front door. Mailing should be done the same day, but if it’s not the same day, the time period in the notice [3 days, 15 days, 60 days, etc] doesn’t start until the later of the day after the posting or the day after the mailing.
On your proof of service, the person who actually served the notice must sign. We recommend you always have two people go to the property and perform the serve. This way, if one of the people is terminated or is out sick or on vacation at the trial date, the other person is available to appear in court to testify. If the person who served the notice is not available at trial, we may have to settle the case to avoid losing at trial.
2. Just cause for eviction – most tenancies are covered under TPA2019 which requires just cause for eviction. Even for tenancies that aren’t covered, it’s best [for multiple reasons] to include a just cause on the notice you serve.
In most circumstances, especially for 3day notices, the facts supporting the just cause must be included in the notice. For example, if the tenant causes excessive noise, parking violations, nuisance, etc., the notice must state the specifics, including dates, names of witnesses or reporting parties, and a detailed description of exactly what happened. Police reports are nice but not necessarily required. It is very important that you do not accept any rent after the date of the incident which caused you to want to terminate the tenancy. If you accept rent after that date, you may be deemed to have waived the behavior/violation.
We recommend all property managers keep a detailed log/journal of all activities, incidents, reports from others, etc, and update it immediately upon each occurrence. The log/journal will provide the supporting details that are required for the notice and is good evidence that the alleged occurrences actually did happen as detailed. Bring this log/journal to court on the day of trial, to support the statements in the notice. You may also need to bring to court the actual people who witnessed the occurrences, all written statements you received, etc.
3. Habitability – almost every UD defendant will claim the landlord did not properly repair and maintain the unit. Be sure your detailed log/journal [see above] includes the dates of any tenant requests, the action you performed, the date it was performed, and the name of the company and/or technician who completed the action. Bring this log/journal to court on the day of trial, to support the repairs performed. You may also need to bring to court the actual people who made the repairs, all written invoices and statements you received, etc.
4. Payment ledgers – because of new state laws, we recommend that you apply tenant payments to the months the tenant specifies in the payment or, if nothing is specified, to the months in which they are received. Bring the ledger to court on the day of trial, to support payments received and how they were applied.
5. Ownership – most UD cases are filed in the name of the owner of the property as reflected in the recorded documents. If the actual owner is different than the owner stated on the UD complaint, it can cause significant problems at trial, including delays, additional expense, and potentially losing the case.
If you don’t know the legal names of your property owners, it’s best to inquire now, before you need to file a case. Then, for residential tenancies, compare the current owner’s name and the name of the management company [if any] to the name/s recited as “landlord” on each tenant’s rental agreement. If the name of the current owner and/or management company is not the same as on the rental agreement, you must serve a Notice of Change of Ownership and/or Management [NCOM] on the tenant.
Additionally, state law provides that specific information must be included on the NCOM, otherwise it’s not valid. Failure to serve a valid NCOM on the tenant within 15 days of the change in ownership or management means you are still owed the rent and can collect it in a civil or small claims case, but you can not include any rent which was due prior to the date you served the NCOM on a notice to pay rent or quit or use it to evict the tenant. This is a common argument made by defense attorneys.
The above article was provided by Menke Law Firm who represent us in many legal matters.