Can my landlord force me to get a roommate?!

[Falk]

If I had a roommate who is now moving out, can the landlord force me to get another roommate if I do not want to and am willing to cover the rent for the entire apartment?

I live in a rent controlled duplex apartment in Los Angeles. I was living here alone until the place sold last summer and agreed to let a roommate move in so that the new landlord would get more money out of the place (even though I had a very clear lease stating I had rental of the entire premises). We added an addendum to the existing lease changing the specification of the leased premises to: One bedroom of the dwelling and shared common living areas except for the second bedroom shared by the landlord or roommate for the term of the lease.

Anyways, this was added about a year and a half into my leasing the place as the sole tenant. The whole roommate thing has been a huge nightmare, and I am just not willing to continue with this crap. My current roommate just gave notice because she can't afford to pay the rent, and my lease has gone to month to month status since Feb' 5th. I want to just rent the entire place again, on my own. I will cover the whole rent for both rooms, even though it means doubling my rent, which was the original rent on the entire unit when I fist moved in two and a half years ago. But my landlord is being really difficult, insisting on "filling the other room" because he has this "goal" of having two tenants in here. No idea why. I've tried offering him 6 months in advance to make up for any money they lost due to security deposits, and am even willing to give up use of the (big!) garage if they will knock $50 off the monthly rent price.
Can he force me to have another tenant in her with me if I am willing to pay for the entire place??? Doesn't seem right!

 

[disagreeable]

They can refuse to grant you a new lease unless they come to an agreement of terms with you.

 

[army judge]

With the other tenant gone, you've now become a month to month tenant.
So, until the LL gives you proper notice, the apartment is yours at the rate you were paying.
I suggest you look for a new apartment, ASAP.
Your LL is a whack job.
You might have some recourse if Yiu discuss this with your LA rent control board.
If I recall, they are part of the LA city government.
Call city hall for contact information or yoyr city councilperson's office, or Google it.
They might have other remedies.

 

[mightymoose]

You need to either sign a new lease with the landlord which allows you to pay the full rent for the whole place or else you need to start shopping for a new apartment.
If you do have to move, you do not have to pay any increased rent.
Perhaps if you go to the landlord with the logic that he can either allow you to double up and have the place to yourself, or he can shop for two new tenants instead of just one then he might bargain with you. You have been there long enough that he knows you are dependable for the rent. It will be more of a risk for him to get new tenants.

 

[Falk]

Followup question: could he evict me if I refuse a roommate?

Thank you for all the advice. I have been trying to reason with this new owner, but it's been very frustrating. He's got no experience being a landlord, and frankly, I just don't understand his reasoning (if there is any). From what I understood from the attorney who helped me draw up my original lease with the original landlord, once I've lived in a rent controlled property for over a year (which I have, for close to three years already, actually), then it automatically goes to month to month terms if neither the tenant or landlord request a new lease be drawn up 30 day before the lease runs out. My lease was up over a month ago, and never renewed. My roommate had a separate lease from me that she had signed with the new owners, so I don't know what hers looked like.

If we cannot come to an agreement, can he evict me?? I mean, I'm not an idiot, I'm not about to let him raise the rent on the property beyond what rent control laws allow AND take away the garage on top of that. And I am pretty adamant about not getting another roommate, if possible. I was living here alone when they bought the place, I don't think it's fair to force me to share the home I have had here for several years already if I would like to rent both rooms and am willing to pay the same price they have been getting.
If they want me to move that bad, I feel they should really pay to relocate me. I do want to move eventually, just because it has been a nightmare dealing with this person ever since they took over. Very stressful, and TONS of hassles. But I am currently in the middle of a semester in nursing school, and can't really take the time to deal with finding a new place and moving until June. I've even said: let me just give you cash for the next two months, same as what you would have gotten if my roommate had never left, and we can come up with something long term after that, or I'll move. But he's insisting we come up with a year lease by the end of the month. I've been trying to reach him for the last 3 days to see what's going on, and he hasn't called me back. It is SO STRESSFUL not knowing what my living situation is going to be! It is already the 19th of the month. What should I do? What CAN I do?? I don't even know how much rent I should be paying him at the end of this month. I don't want an eviction on my record, especially since I didn't do anything wrong, I take care of the place and have never been late on paying for anything.
Very frustrating.

Thanks again, any advice is greatly appreciated.

 

[Falk]

With the other tenant gone, you've now become a month to month tenant.
So, until the LL gives you proper notice, the apartment is yours at the rate you were paying.
I suggest you look for a new apartment, ASAP.
Your LL is a whack job.
You might have some recourse if Yiu discuss this with your LA rent control board.
If I recall, they are part of the LA city government.
Call city hall for contact information or yoyr city councilperson's office, or Google it.
They might have other remedies.

Haha, he is a little bit of a whack job, I am becoming more and more convinced of that as time goes by... His response to my email informing him of extensive water damage to the hardwood floors a few months ago after a waterpipe burst under the house while both my roommate and I were gone for the holidays kind of made that clear. I could not get ahold of him for an entire week, after three days of frantic texts and phone calls that went unreturned I finally shelled out $1000 to the plumber to fix the pipes so that we would at least have hot water again. His response to the email I sent him about this came three weeks later and consisted of two words: "Total bummer".
I mean... REALLY?!
But that's a story for a whole other post on here, isn't it?

 

[mightymoose]

Technically, no, that is not something you would be evicted for, however the whole fiasco may cause the landlord to give you notice to vacate and not renew your month to month lease... and THEN you could be evicted if you failed to move out.