Law Office of Richard Koman 707.544.5354

Here’s one way to win a stay of execution. The San Jose Merc reports on a tenant who refused to leave when the sheriff showed up in Santa Cruz county. The attempted eviction of a renter Tuesday led to an hours-long police standoff and closed roads before sheriff’s deputies decided to leave the man inside the Vienna Drive home and seek an arrest warrant. Sheriffs are expecting to see more tenant resistance to vacating from foreclosure sales, although not to the point of standoffs. Most of the time they are amicable, but I think they need the proof of us …Read more »

A San Francisco landlord tried to permanently evict longtime tenants after getting them removed temporarily in order to make serious repairs to their unit. The penalty? $1.2 million, a judgment that the California Court of Appeals just affirmed, SF Weekly reports. The landlord used a city ordinance to give notice to the tenants that they had to vacate for three months to do repairs. When they didn’t leave on time – they said they had no place to go unless he paid the relocation fees – he sued in unlawful detainer and won. Based on that case and a stipulation, …Read more »

SF Weekly has a funny piece on some of the more extreme landlord-tenant disputes out there. This week, a landlord was so pissed off, he “wielded a large kitchen knife at the tenant and threatened to kill the tenant.” Illegal eviction? Yes, as well as constructive eviction, violation of the warranty of quiet enjoyment, illegal entry, assault and battery, and probably retaliation. Don’t know what the tenant did, but in any case, this was not a good choice. S.F. Tenants Union head Ted Gullickson also reports, among other stories: A few weeks ago, a landlord set up a Webcam in …Read more »

Landlord-tenant law is actually a fairly technical area of law. In non-rent-controlled areas like Sonoma County, the law clearly and decidedly favors landlords. The law wants landlords to be able to regain possession of their property if a tenant isn’t paying the rent or is otherwise abusing the agreement by which they are in possession. But the trade-off is that landlords are held to very specific requirements to obtain that eviction. Specifically, eviction notices must follow specific rules, complaints must state facts in strict accordance with leases, court documents must be served properly, and so on. Here are a few …Read more »