Expert: Michelle Mangen - 5/7/2009

Question
Hello...

My Name is Javier, and im trying to help my retired parents with this situation.

My parents rented out a single bedroom home (our back house), and the tenants have been served with a 30 Day Notice to vacate the premises. There is no lease drawn up, and we have considered it a "month to month" lease. They where supposed to have moved out yesterday, but after stopping by my parents house, it seems they have not yet moved out, or even plan on moving out.

My question is, what's next? What can we do to have them leave? They have not paid rent in 3 months, and also have a past due balance which almost equals to 1 months rent.

They have not wanted to cooperate with us, they have been rude, and even said "we are not leaving" before the 30 Day Notice was handed to them.

Please help with any advice possible. We live in Southern California, and are desperate for some much needed advice.

Many thanks
Javier

Answer
Hi Javier:

The first thing you should do is contact your Clerk of Courts office and ask them what documents are needed to proceed with filing an eviction action.

Since I am only familiar with WI I will tell you how the process works for us here, there - of course, may be some variations in California but I would imagine it is probably similar:

1. Tenants' served with notice to vacate (you've already done this)
2. Tenants' don't leave
3. File eviction action against tenants' by going to the Clerk of Courts office
4. Get court date scheduled & appear at that court date with all appropriate documentation to prove to the Judge/Commissioner that you gave them the notice
5. If they do not show up for the scheduled court date you may have some extra steps. In WI if they do not show up at the court date then we have to go to the Sheriff's office and pay a Sheriff and authorized moving company to have them physically removed from the premises.

Hope this helps & please remember when leaving me feedback to take into consideration that on "Knowledge" my profile says that I am only experienced with WI!

Michelle Mangen
Owner, Your Virtual Assistant
Neenah, WI
http://www.TheVirtualAsst.com