patrick.net

Not a lawyer but doesn't seem like it. All the pages I googled up only referred to a landlord changing after a sale of the property. Check the lease and see who is listed as the landlord, for all you know his name could be on it. If it's not, he doesn't have legal right to do anything until he does power of attorney or equivalent. I could see legal trouble for you if you hand him the keys. You don't know if there's drama in the family and the rest of the kids will sue you for giving them to him.

If you wanted to be nice and realize you're going to end up moving out anyways, you can hand him a copy of the lease. Are you currently month-to-month or longer term?

Granted, fully expect him to get something signed by her saying your lease isn't being renewed. Any replacement landlord is required to give you your deposit, and it's their responsibility to get the old deposit from the old landlord, not your problem.

Thanks for your response. The son-in-law is not listed on the lease - just the landlady's name and the original property manager they pretended they'd be using when they took my deposit and had me sign the lease (they fired him a few days later).

I sent a copy of the lease to the son-in-law by mail, I'm now month to month so I feel like a sitting duck waiting to get a 60-day notice. Can you sue a demented person who's broke to get your security deposit? The easiest exit would be to use the security money for my last 60 days of living here.

Where do you live? Tenant's rights vary.

Hercules. However, this landlady has never "registered" her house as a rental; it's been off the books.

If you are going month to month, then shouldn't you be looking for another place to live?

??? I was month-to-month for about 12 years at my last two rentals; I never thought month-to-month was a state of instability. My last two landlords were delighted to have me.

Plus, the last time I mentioned the issue to the daughter of this particular landlady, she was surprised I brought it up and said "we'd give you six months notice" or something to that effect. This was supposed to be a long term rental as they wanted freedom from the house.

I'd take the opportunity to get out on your own schedule.

The guardianship process for an adult will take some time, so don't expect to be getting served an eviction notice any time soon. I wouldn't take wanting copies of the lease personally, as you start to assume the affairs of someone you need to collect up all the papers to present to lawyers & judges. If they want you out of there and you want to contest it, you can drag this out for quite some time but to what end?

As a person with a parent who is slipping into dementia, I can understand where they are coming from and why they NEED that house back. Someone in the middle stages of dementia can at least function in a place they were used to, but are UNABLE to learn new things. It's hell. At best they are buying themselves some time until she will need to go into assisted care.

Vicente says

The guardianship process for an adult will take some time, so don't expect to be getting served an eviction notice any time soon.

Yeah,keep sending those check where you are supposed and you are covered. I'd seriously doubt a court would grant an eviction order to someone who can't prove vested interest in the property(being an heir to a surviving parent does not automatically grant that right to inheritance).

I agree with you, Vicente, although in their case they are over 60 miles from the house and the landlady would need to drive to the store. They are buying time, it seems, but also they're tired of having her in their own neighborhood where they must witness and respond to her craziness.

The other issue for them is that she will lose about half of her tiny income if I move out. So are they acting in her best interests or is she too ill to understand the ramifications of moving back into a decaying house with no family nearby?

I will start looking around although I'm still unclear about the security deposit situation. I know she can't afford to pay it back and I only hope they agree to my living here rent-free for a few months so I will not need to sue her.

In CA he can't do that without a legal permission from the original land lady.

It's really up to you, talk to the landlady see how she feels about it. This might be a human choice, unless that kid is simply blowing smoke up your rear trying to get you to move out under pretenses.

If you do move make sure you get it in writing from the landlady, because this way they will owe you a deposit. And if they don't pay you, well, they'll owe you a deposit plus 2 month rent if you go to court for it (as long as you have your rental contract with you).

You don't have to send him anything, he is a stranger to you. Especially make sure you don't give up the originals, because that's the only legally binding document that shows that they owe you a deposit and are a proof of the rental contract.

kpinna says

I agree with you, Vicente, although in their case they are over 60 miles from the house and the landlady would need to drive to the store. They are buying time, it seems, but also they're tired of having her in their own neighborhood where they must witness and respond to her craziness.

Dementia cases will need a caregiver. A family member, you mentioned a daughter, is best, with paid being a very poor substitute. My mom cannot be trusted in a kitchen on her own anymore. Nor would she really want to be. People who are losing it, clutch at their most familiar person like a life jacket in the ocean. You get out of their sight they get anxious and wonder every second when you are coming back.

Probably they are exploring their options, and while money is a part of it, we do want to be humane don't we? Have some friends who worked in an assisted-care facility and their perspective was decline is more rapid for people who go in there so the longer you can put if off the better.

If you have lived in the rental for over a year, they are required to give you 60 days notice (google CA Consumer Affairs Landlord notice) to terminate a month to month tenancy.

The landlord has 21 days to get you your refund or give you a list of itemized charges. Fwiw, there is no such thing as a non-refundable deposit in CA. If they don't, you can go to small claims and get a lien against the house (which will accrue interest until you do get paid).

I wouldn't count on too much of a delay while the family gets guardianship. All they really need to do is have her sign a notarized power of attorney when she appears to be coherent enough to answer affirmatively to a notary. Once they have unlimited power of attorney, I think it would probably be pointless to argue against them since if it went to court claiming that she was not cognizant of the power of attorney then the family would just prevail in getting guardianship....

best of luck....

Thanks, Fort Wayne. In this case, I think there's implicit agreement on her part. There were mixed messages when I starting renting this place and I could tell she was reluctant to move her stuff out (she left quite a bit of furniture in the house) and would be happy to move back.

One of this son-in-law's suggestions was that she rent a room back from me (HE doesn't want to live with her but he thinks I would want to???) and I think that was probably her suggestion.

I think she's embarrassed to contact me, not happy about asking me to leave, and hoping somehow he'll handle the whole mess for her.

Good point about her needing a caregiver. So they cannot just leave her there on her own and will need to cajole another family member to live with her. Doesn't sound like anybody wants to. She can be difficult.

I have noticed how depressed she is that one daughter is far away and doesn't keep up with her as expected.

I know about the legal aspects of this, fizbin, but a demented person cannot be expected to return the money on time, show up in court, etc. (this person already has serious credit problems). So I wonder who is then legally responsible for the matter. The person who has taken on the power of attorney? Does HE need to show up in court? He knows nothing about the state of the house when I moved in so could not possibly list any damages that occurred while I was living here. And the property manager I signed the agreement with was fired before I even submitted my list of problems that needed to be fixed. They even rented it to me without cleaning the carpet. These were not conscientious folks.

fizbin says

I wouldn't count on too much of a delay while the family gets guardianship. All they really need to do is have her sign a notarized power of attorney when she appears to be coherent enough to answer affirmatively to a notary.

This is often a trouble spot for elders. Handing over the financial reins is sometimes not something they want to do. What's the first rite of financial adulthood? Getting your own checkbook. Sometimes they will sign a power of attorney document "in the event of" thus not granting power of attorney NOW and then delay and delay admitting that they are incompetent. Until such time as the children have to go before a judge and get them declared. An ugly process. Perhaps theirs will be more clearcut.

If they elect to go forward with moving her in there, I would go elsewhere unless you REALLY like her or something you do not need to be in the middle of all that. Without knowing the people involved though.... a lot will hinge on her medical state. You may be worrying for nothing because she may end up going to "the home" anyhow when she breaks her hip or has some really bad episode. Deterioriating mind leads to prematurely deteriorating body, my Mom would waste away left on her own she forgets to eat.

I worry about this as our landlady is starting to get old and dotty. We've been renting the same SFH for 14 years, and the price is good, but if we had to move and get another rental we'd be paying way more than PITI. Rents are high here and no one wants to rent to a family with kids, dogs, and cats.

After the last landlord visit/inspection we made the decision to start looking to buy, even though I think the prices are still falling. I just can't deal with having a crazy person having so much control over my family's shelter. She is getting stranger and more obnoxious as she gets older.

If moving our entire kit and kaboodle to another rental were an option we'd do it, but right now there's nothing to rent. Nothing affordable. That allows dogs.

Then again, we've been looking to buy for 3 months and there;s nothing to buy either.

Holding pattern.

Almost hoping for a medium-sized quake to bring the prices down temporarily...

Vicente, a few months ago a home owner two doors away offered to rent me HIS house (he knew I was dealing with many small repairs and a landlady who does not answer her phone). I will probably ask him if he's still interested (he may have decided to sell instead). It would be odd if I moved two doors away and was the primary person my landlady could turn to in her crazy state.

Like 1sfrenter, I was wondering if I should buy (house prices are around 300K up here and houses/lots are huge) but I'm so near retirement it doesn't make sense to get stuck in a place I may not want to live in for more than 5 years. Hercules is also near bankrupty - is it safe to buy when a city is bankrupt?