I recently (4/15/04) moved to a 4 bedroom house located in an
unincorporated area of L.A. County, but which uses a Whittier, CA
90604 postal address.  This house is owned by my aunt & uncle (will
refer to as "they" or "them" from this point) who purchased a new home
several hours away. "They" asked me if I was interested in renting
their home for $900 a month, with a 6-month lease, then to follow with
a month-to-month after that timeframe. I agreed and a verbal
discussion took place on 2 occasions with "them", (1 conversation took
place with my boyfriend present) discussing the areas of the house to
be rented, the rent and the lease period.  What was agreed upon was: 2
bedrooms, kitchen, living/dining room, 1 bathroom, garage, shed.
"They" advised me that I could start moving my belongings in on 4/9
and the actual "move-in" would be 4/15. On 4/14, "they" went on a
pre-planned trip out of state,  advising me that "they" had to leave,
and we would do all the paperwork when they returned.  Everything to
this point was a "verbal" agreement, I had no figures to go on for
security or the 15 days of April which I was living there.  I left
them a $900 check for the month of May on the table with a note
stating that I would be available for discussion when they returned to
finalize things.  One of the 'agreements' of the rental was that I was
responsible for all maintenance of the lawn and plants.  I agreed to
this, and during the timeframe they were gone (2 weeks), I watered the
numerous plants in the front, back and both sides of the property
several times.  This residence does not have sprinklers.  On 4/24 &
4/25, I went out of town, returning to work on 4/26.  When I arrived
home the evening of 4/26, I saw that "they" had returned from vacation
and were at the property.  One of the stipulations of this rental was
that they would be able to take their time and move their things out
of the garage at their convenience and would be able to occupy the
back bedroom & bathroom.  A knock at the door on 4/26 revealed my
step-uncle waving his hands, screaming at me, pointing his finger,
threatening me that he wanted me "out of his house", that I "never
watered", that "all his plants were dead", that I was "lying" and that
he "wanted his house back".  I calmly explained to him that I had
watered the landscape several times during his absence and that the
two days that I had been gone, the weather had been over 100 degrees
on both days, which would explain the brown edges of some of the
plants.  To get to the point, on 4/26, 4/27 and 4/28 "they" have
verbally told me that I have 30 days to vacate the house, find a new
home and that they are not going to cash my check.  They have advised
me that they ?want their home back, they made a mistake and they want
me out of the house?.  I have many questions, but the most important,
what do I do? What are my legal rights as a tenant with the
information that I have supplied you above.  I have done a lot of
research on the internet about tenant rights and see that I have to be
served with a formal written eviction notice and nothing verbal will
up hold. Even then,  they would still have to go to court and file an
Unlawful Detainer to be served to me.  What are my rights?  I run a
small business and EVERYTHING is already changed over to this address
? checks, magazines, web subscriptions, 2-year contract with DSL
internet service, etc.?  I stand to lose a lot of money.

It appears you do not have a written lease, correct?  I do not know
California landlord-tenant law sufficiently well to know whether a
lease must be in writing in CA, but I will assume it does not as that
is the general rule.  So, let's assume you have a verbal lease with a
six-month term.  As long as you are not in breach of the lease, you
cannot arbitrarily be evicted.  The landlord would need to bring some
type of unlawful detainer action against you; but again, as I said,
that requires a showing that you are in breach of lease.  If you are
not, then the landlord must wait until the end of the six-month term,
and then if you remain in possession without consent you will be
improperly "holding over" and can be sued for unlawful detainer.

The problem you confront is one of proof (this is why verbal contracts
are disfavored).  If they sue you, all they will have to argue is that
there was no set lease term.  If there's no set lease term, then your
lease is month-to-month, meaning the landlord can terminate it at any
time on 30 days' notice.  Unless the lease specifies it, I doubt that
the notice must be in writing to terminate a month-to-month
tenancy--better check with a CA lawyer on that critical point.  Your
landlord will thus likely argue that your 30 days began to run on
April 26 and that on May 26 you will be in unlawful detainer.  The
result will depend on who the judge believes, quite frankly, as is the
case in all verbal contract disputes.

Hi rockinro-ga: 

I'm very sorry about your situation. It certainly sounds to me like
you've tried to be a very considerate and responsible tenant.

Years ago, when we were going to be out of town for a few months, we
agreed to rent our house to dear friends who were going to be moving
and who had a buyer who wanted to move into their home ASAP.

A few months later we came home to find cigarette burns on about half
our furniture, and food and beverage stains on much of the carpeting.
Not only that, they hadn't done a thing with the lawn, which was about
3 feet high, thus attracting a large family of copperheads that took
up stubborn, protracted residence in our stone wall.

Believe me, I would have been thrilled senseless to have found only a
few wilted plants. (And I realize the heat wave was pretty much beyond
your control.)

So, I have known lousy tenants and you sound like a terrific one!
Unfortunately, "deals" like the ones you and I made were done only
verbally, thanks to friendship/family ties and mutual trust -- which
later bit one party in the you-know-what.

I'm sure ipfan-ga's insights have been helpful to you. All I can add
is, it would undoubtedly help to have a lawyer at your side.

I looked for a law firm specializing in tenant law -- figuring it
would likely be familiar with the vagaries re: unincorporated parts of
L.A. -- and I found this firm in the Yellow Pages:

David S. Schonfeld -- "A Landlord Tenant Law Firm." 
 Fullerton, CA  
Phone: 714-871-9004

Also try "Get A Referral," from the Attorney Search Network:
http://www.getareferral.com/los_angeles_lawyers.htm?OVRAW=%22tenant%20law%22%20AND%20Los%20Angeles&OVKEY=los%20angeles%20landlord%20tenant%20law&OVMTC=standard
At that page, select "Whittier" from the menu and it will take you to
a form you fill out online. Or, call their referral line at:
1-877-437-3337.   

If the expense of paying for legal help is a problem, contact:

The L.A. County Neighborhood Legal Services organization:
http://www.nls-la.org/servicesavailable.html

The Legal Aid Foundation Of Los Angeles:
http://www.lafla.org/

Both organizations' services include eviction defense.

I'm very sorry that what seemed like a perfect situation has turned
into such a mess. I sure hope things work for you.

Good luck,

nancylynn-ga
Google Answers Researcher

You didn't sign anything, neither did they. You will forever strain
your family tree if you don't move out. They could say that they only
asked you to watch the house while they were gone and that you are now
trespassing. He said, she said...... I don't think that you are on the
winning side of this problem. Even if you win, you are still out after
six months.  Go in peace or pay the lawer to live there for six
months.