Extra Guests/Tenants, Extra Charges.

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loopi23

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Ok, so my wofe and I are full time RVers with our 2 year old son. We came to visit his Grandma and Grandpa, and they live in a rental home with about an acre or so of property attached. Almost ALL the homes in the neighborhood have RVs, and MANY have people pretty obviously living in them. So, we pulled in and have been staying for a couple months. We are behind the house and had water and Electric hooked up (and it was done legally and per zoning and stuff as I know electrical). Someone in the neighborhood complained that we are living in and RV on the property, and in the city of El Cajon, that seems to be a technical No-No even though I can find 5 obvious cases within a 4 block square area. We got complained about, so we gotta deal with it. Soooo...We removed all hookups as per inspection, slid the slide in, and moved into the living room of my mom's house for a few weeks/one month (we have wedding to attend in Vegas on October 4th). So here's the real crux after all that background.

The landlord (property manager) notified my Mom that they owe $100 additional in rent for us being there for the month, which we were ok with and glad to pay. A few days later the manager said she spoke to the landlord and that we would be liable for $300 because we needed to pay $100 for the two PRIOR months we were there. This seemed wrong since to tack on money for past stuff seemed like it wasn't legal or ethical, since we were never told we could not be there (the lease DOES say they are limited to the 3 tenants [my mom, my step-father, and my grown niece), but when we visited for a short time before they were given permission for us to be there and ongoing "sure your son and his wife and son can visit you for a few months per year" and nothing was charged.)..So, it went from a $100 charge, to a $300 charge, and now today the property manager called and said that the landlord incurred a $100 fine for us being there, and we would ALSO have to pay that... and when my mom asked the inspector he said the fine was because they (landlord and property manager) never responded to the original complaint and ignored it.

So, Questions are:

1> What ARE we liable for?
2> What has to be in writing and what doesn't?
3> Can my mom be evicted for us being here? If so, what procedure would be necessary? (I told her I believed that the landlord would have to give her a written notice 5 days in advance that we (my wife son and I) had to vacate, since that is the only lease stipulation being broken.
4> Generally, we're looking to leave as soon as feasible, but otherwise, what advice do you have for us/my mom?

By the way, in every way they have been great tenants and we have not caused trouble/noise/etc. while being here, so this stuff is all very intense and prompted only by the complaint of us living in the 5th wheel in the yard.

J
 
The issue that often comes up in these situations is when does a "guest" become a "tenant". Some leases actually specify how many days a month a "guest" can remain a "guest" without becoming a tenant.

In your case staying for a few months puts you out of the guest category and because the city inspector has now caught wind of this, the easiest thing to do is to pay the previous two months bill and the fine.

If you fail to do this I suspect the landlord/management will be pulling out the lease that clearly states who can live there and begin the eviction process on Grandma and Grandpa. It doesn't seem fair that they can lose their rental property over a relatively small amount of money.

Gail
 
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