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Click To Call NowWelcome to SNS Law Group, experts in real estate law, including landlord-tenant disputes. In this video, Attorney Edrin Shamtob, a California licensed attorney with over a decade of experience in landlord-tenant law, discusses three essential steps you need to follow in order to evict a non-paying tenant from a rent-controlled property in Los Angeles.
Transcript:
Do you have a Los Angeles tenant who hasn’t paid you rent since April 2023 in a residential property? I’m going to give you three steps that you have to follow in order to evict your non-paying tenant.
This includes properly registering the rental unit with the Housing Department, making sure that there’s no code violations at the property, and finally, serving a proper 3-day notice to quit on your non-paying tenant.
My name is Edrin Shamtob, and I’m a California licensed attorney with more than a decade of experience in the legal field. If you find the information we provide to you today helpful, please go ahead and like, share, and follow.
Three Steps to Evict a Non-Paying Tenant in Los Angeles
Here are the three steps that you have to follow, in greater detail, in order to evict your non-paying tenant.
Register The Property With The Los Angeles Housing Department
The first requirement is, for a rent control property, you must register the property with the Housing Department. This includes filing the appropriate paperwork, paying the annual fees, and obtaining a rent registration certificate.
After you obtain a rent registration certificate, you have to make sure to post that registration certificate at the property, and serve a copy on your tenant. We often get clients who have filed eviction actions before registering their properties or before posting the registration certificate. Do not make that mistake.
Address Code Violations
The second requirement is for you to make sure there’s no code violations at the property. Tenants frequently defend against eviction cases based on habitability violations. So before you file your eviction lawsuit, make sure there’s no habitability issues with the leased premises. This includes issues with water, heating, power, electrical, and structural defects of the property. Doing so will make sure that you’ll save time and money down the line.
Serve A Proper 3-Day Notice To Quit
The final requirement is that you draft and serve a proper 3-day notice to quit. It’s critical that you specify in the 3-day notice the specific violation the tenant has committed before you file your eviction action. Since January 2023, the city of Los Angeles also now requires for you to submit any 3-day notice to quit before you file an eviction action.
We often sign find clients who have filed the eviction actions before they have issued their 3-day notice to quit to the Housing Department. So before you file your eviction lawsuit, make sure you serve your tenant with a 3-day notice to quit and send a copy to the Housing Department.
Contact a Landlord Tenant Attorney in Los Angeles
If you found the information we provided to you helpful today, or if you want to talk about the specifics of your case, please feel free to give us a call.
