I am a landlord in Los Angeles with a rent stabilized property. I am in the process of relocating two tenants who have lived at my property for 26 years (I bought the property 7 months ago). In January they texted me saying their grandchildren will live on the property for less than two months since their mother died. One of the grandchildren is under 18 and other is supposedly the legal guarding of the other grandchildren. Since I started this process the story changed and the grandparents are claiming their grandchildren are tenants and because the one daughter is the minor of the other daughter who would be considered a tenant that makes them qualified tenants and bumps what they would qualify for up $8,000. The housing department made their decision and decided the grandchildren are legal tenants since they were there over two weeks and awarded the tenants an additional $8,000 because of this. I appealed the decision and have to go back and argue my case in two months. As of now they have a sixty day notice to move out June 25th.
I was hoping for some thoughts on the matter and advice on understanding the law better which is very skewed and simple to get tenants to sway the decision in their favor. Any tips or suggestions on how I can make my case iron clad or at least have a chance would be a great help. I have security cameras in front of my property facing the door, mentioning that incase that has any use.
Most of us here on this forum are in the SF bay area. The rent control laws in LA are different from what we have here although they should be comparable. From your description your tenants clearly know what they are doing, so you are dealing with intelligent tenants who are maximizing their advantage from the law that are heavily favoring them. You didn’t mention whether the tenants have legal representation, but I would imagine they do being such scheming individuals. So I agree with Marcus that your best bet is probably just pay and not fight it. There is a lot of social sympathy toward tenants who are leaving a unit in California so to get a judgement that you think is impartial is very difficult. For $8k if your case drags on for a few months the rent lost will be similar to that amount (just guessing).
Just imagine the joy you’ll have once the unit is vacated. Every time you feel depressed from the tenants you need to picture that in your mind so that you can maximize the numbing effects from that thought. After a while it becomes addictive.
I have a lawyer. They did originally and we had a deal with their lawyer then their lawyer went silent. And supposedly they fired their lawyer. I do not know about any council they have since then.