Can the landlord evict me without just cause?

By Tenant

For renters living in their apartments and paying rent diligently, it may come as a big surprise to wake up one morning and receive a 30-day notice posted on your door. When it happened to me, I was very confused. I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t even know what I did to deserve such treatment. So I went into the property manager’s office and demanded an explanation. Apparently, they didn’t know anything about it and said that it was the landlord’s decision. The problem is, the landlord would not even talk to me.

So what can I do? What are my rights in this situation? Confused, I went online for some answers. I knew I wasn’t getting any legal advice but it’s worth a try. So here are the things that I found out.

Reasons why a landlord can evict me:

• Non-payment of rent. He needs to serve me with a 3-day notice and then follow the normal eviction process. (Nope, I’m not guilty. I paid my rent on time – all the time).
• Violation of a clause(s) in the lease agreement. Examples would be bringing pets if it’s a “no pets allowed” building. Another example would be subleasing, without the landlord’s written consent. (Again, I did not do any of these).
• Violation of a responsibility that has been enforced by law, like damaging the property or using it as some sort of crime den. (I am have not, do not and will not do this).

However, every state is unique. In California, a landlord cannot evict a tenant without just cause. But in other states, a valid reason may not be required as long as the landlord follows the necessary actions.

Also, if you are no longer in a lease but are on a month to month basis, then the landlord can choose to evict you for whatever reason. Even personal reasons like if your landlord intends to move in or some of his family members will are valid.

You will know if your landlord is following the right process if the letter you received has these:

1. Name of tenant
2. Address of the rental property
3. Reason for the notice to vacate
4. Number of days until the property is vacant
5. The landlord’s signature
6. Date that the notice was given

So I was still in a lease agreement with my landlord, I did not do any of the offenses mentioned above and my landlord has refused to give me a reason why a notice to vacant was sent. The next step I did was to hire a mediator to try to resolve the problem outside of court. For this, I used RPA’s services through their complaint center: http://www.rentalprotectionagency.com/complaint_center.php. Apparently, the notice was given incorrectly and the landlord had to take it back.

When my lease is up, I won’t renew, though. I wouldn’t want to get stuck with this kind of landlord for another year.

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