tenant Disputes
Do you manage Silicon Valley rentals? Do tenants surprise you with all sort of violations of lease terms? You are not alone. A lot of property managers live in fear of getting that phone call that a tenant has done something catastrophic or strange in their rentals.
We have written before about a tenant who was raising livestock (chickens) without our knowledge in the backyard of a Los Gatos rental. So, how did we deal with these lease violations?
Violation notice: You need to develop a notice language that clearly identified the violation of the lease. It’s wise to add the exact language of the lease section that refers to the conditon that is being violated. In our case, we copied the pet policy section of the residential lease agreement that were violated.
Propose a remedy: The violation notice should offer your tenant the option is cure the problems. You should also give your tenants reasonable amount of time to correct the lease violation. Removing chickens in a 10 days is not comparable to removing a wall that’s been installed without a permit. While you are requiring your tenants to remedy the violation, you should leave eviction as an option on the table.
Evict or not: One of your options to deal with the residential lease violations is evictions. But this is your nuclear option unless the violations are severe. Sure you should consider removing your tenants if they have turned your home into a drug house or are growing illegal marijuana, but that’s much different from raising chickens.
Contact Us if you have any rentals in Los Gatos, Campbell, Saratoga and San Jose to discuss your options.