PsychePunk
New Member
I am permanently disabled and for the past sixteen years my Mom has handled all of my financial responsibilities. My SSI check goes to her (Payee is HER NAME for MY NAME). She pays for where I live, utilities and gives me a weekly allowance for food and misc personal expenses.
Until nine months ago I lived in a condo she owned as the only tenant. At that time she purchased a new home and offered me the chance to live in the house she was moving out of. This house has been the family home since 1973. Since this place was quite a bit larger and at least three times the value of the condo I would need to rent part of it in order to do this.
I had a recently divorced girlfriend with two children who desperately needed a place to stay. So, at the time this seemed like an ideal situation for everyone.
She agreed to pay $1200 a month for three bedrooms and house privileges. She also agreed to pay for a portion of the electric, gas, TV and phone and assume a portion of the yard maintenance in return for $100 credit against the monthly rent.
My living/financial arrangements with my Mom remained unchanged except that I changed residences.
Comparable rentals rates in our area for our home are $3000 to $3500. So this is not a case of her and I 'splitting the rent'. No lease or rental agreements were signed. No deposits were required. My Mom did make it clear that this was my home and my girlfriend was renting the bedrooms for herself and her two boys.
I know that is a lot of detail but I think it might be important in determining what we do now.
On May 28th she was served with a 30 day notice to vacate premises. I don't think the reasons are important but mainly Non-payment of any utilities and destruction of property are the biggies. It is now July 1 and she has shown no signs of packing or leaving. My Mom asked her last night why she had not left and her reply was "I am aiming for this weekend." My Mom nor I quite understand what this means. The notice to quit was quite clear that she needed to be out in thirty days.
While seven more days does not seem like much, she does not say she IS leaving, but that she is AIMING to. There have been so many broken promises and excuses for not paying the utilities, damages to property, etc. that we have no reason to believe her statement really means anything at all.
So... Does this fall under or qualify as the "Single lodger in a private residence" exception for California law? She is clearly renting the three rooms from my Mom, the utilities are in my Mom's or my name. I am not my Mom's tenant, I am "in her trust", yet the actual "OWNER" of the house does not live here.
If not, what happens now? Her oldest son is destroying my property and she is purposely inflating the utilities bills out of spite. If I am not home they let my dog out to run into the streets. They invite large groups of people over late at night and neighbors are complaining. We are in violation of a HOA law because she doesn't think her son should have to park his truck in our three-car driveway (its too hard for him) and he parks it in the street at night. She made one payment of $400 toward months of utility bills two months ago that she agreed to pay monthly. This balance is $4200 and climbing. They flooded the kitchen and my new hardwood floor is warped and rotted along one wall and the finish is ruined all over. I bought a new stainless side by side refrigerator in January and the dispenser thing for the water has been snapped off, the front is kicked in and the finish along one side has been ruined. The number of constant petty disruptive actions daily would make you laugh if you weren't already crying. I am all but afraid to leave my room when they are at home.
This is a nightmare.
Until nine months ago I lived in a condo she owned as the only tenant. At that time she purchased a new home and offered me the chance to live in the house she was moving out of. This house has been the family home since 1973. Since this place was quite a bit larger and at least three times the value of the condo I would need to rent part of it in order to do this.
I had a recently divorced girlfriend with two children who desperately needed a place to stay. So, at the time this seemed like an ideal situation for everyone.
She agreed to pay $1200 a month for three bedrooms and house privileges. She also agreed to pay for a portion of the electric, gas, TV and phone and assume a portion of the yard maintenance in return for $100 credit against the monthly rent.
My living/financial arrangements with my Mom remained unchanged except that I changed residences.
Comparable rentals rates in our area for our home are $3000 to $3500. So this is not a case of her and I 'splitting the rent'. No lease or rental agreements were signed. No deposits were required. My Mom did make it clear that this was my home and my girlfriend was renting the bedrooms for herself and her two boys.
I know that is a lot of detail but I think it might be important in determining what we do now.
On May 28th she was served with a 30 day notice to vacate premises. I don't think the reasons are important but mainly Non-payment of any utilities and destruction of property are the biggies. It is now July 1 and she has shown no signs of packing or leaving. My Mom asked her last night why she had not left and her reply was "I am aiming for this weekend." My Mom nor I quite understand what this means. The notice to quit was quite clear that she needed to be out in thirty days.
While seven more days does not seem like much, she does not say she IS leaving, but that she is AIMING to. There have been so many broken promises and excuses for not paying the utilities, damages to property, etc. that we have no reason to believe her statement really means anything at all.
So... Does this fall under or qualify as the "Single lodger in a private residence" exception for California law? She is clearly renting the three rooms from my Mom, the utilities are in my Mom's or my name. I am not my Mom's tenant, I am "in her trust", yet the actual "OWNER" of the house does not live here.
If not, what happens now? Her oldest son is destroying my property and she is purposely inflating the utilities bills out of spite. If I am not home they let my dog out to run into the streets. They invite large groups of people over late at night and neighbors are complaining. We are in violation of a HOA law because she doesn't think her son should have to park his truck in our three-car driveway (its too hard for him) and he parks it in the street at night. She made one payment of $400 toward months of utility bills two months ago that she agreed to pay monthly. This balance is $4200 and climbing. They flooded the kitchen and my new hardwood floor is warped and rotted along one wall and the finish is ruined all over. I bought a new stainless side by side refrigerator in January and the dispenser thing for the water has been snapped off, the front is kicked in and the finish along one side has been ruined. The number of constant petty disruptive actions daily would make you laugh if you weren't already crying. I am all but afraid to leave my room when they are at home.
This is a nightmare.
