Thank goodness I'm not asking this time for me (you may recall I have a disabled tenant in a roommate situation), but am asking for someone else, in San Diego County, CALIF.

The situation is that a disabled 50-ish female tenant received a 60-day Notice of Termination of Tenancy. She is not in a walker or a wheelchair, but has some serious health issues that will only become worse and eventually take her life.

No reason was given, nor do I think a reason has to be legally given when terminating a month-to-month tenancy.

Last year she was in the process of being evicted for non-payment of rent but managed to get rent money together before any court date.

The disabled tenant lives in a duplex for about 5 years, it is not Sec. 8, and the LL just found out about the dog and two or three cats she now has, and saw the urine stains and urine puddles as well as fecal matter on the floors throughout the duplex. The tenant has recently been unable to take care of her animals due to an injury in addition to her health issues, and I'm not sure what the month-to-month rental agreement says about pets.

What happens if the tenant refuses to move out?

Does the LL then file for a Notice of Eviction, and if that gets done, is it really possible that a sheriff will show up and physically put this disabled woman out of the duplex?

What if the woman has no place to go? Is the LL forced to keep her as a tenant?

Thanks for answering my curiosity about this!

Fab Gal

"asking for a friend".... *grins

Your friend needs to talk to an attorney and possibly a social worker. While I agree that someone in this condition should not be allowed to continue trashing/stinking up a unit, I also would not want to be in the unenviable position of making the news.

"Local land lord throw physically disabled tenant on the street...details at 6!"

No thanks.

The sheriff sets her out but he doesn't physically place his hands on her stuff and move it out. You have to pay a crew to bag up her stuff and move it out, and, depending on local law, you might have to move it into storage and pay to store it for a month.

In anticipation of a real mess if there is an eviction, I would probably go over and explain to her how bad it would be for her to have an eviction on her record and offer to pay for a moving truck and a couple of workers to move her stuff if she could find a new place to live.

That she can go anytime during the notice period without penalty. (she doesn't owe any rent for any days after she is out, no notice period needed.)

First step would be to contact her relatives and see if they can help her move.

I wouldn't even mention the animals. Just evict for over-stay if she doesn't get out by the end of the notice period, or start an eviction for non-payment of rent if she stops paying rent after receiving the notice.

Thanks for the input, everyone!

I guess it all boils down to this:

*if all is in order with the courts for an eviction, and this woman just sits down on the floor and refuses to leave, do the sheriff and deputies pick her up and carry her out?

The tenant apparently has no one except her neighbors.

Disabled or not, I would get her out of there ASAP. It may take a decent eviction attorney in CA. Multiple non-permitted animals defecating and urinating unchecked would be considered a health hazard. A health inspector may help get her kicked out even quicker (or at least get the animals taken away).

This is really not a complicated situation.

I believe that, as of now, there is no rent control in San Diego, city or county, along with no just-cause eviction requirement.

The situation is simply that a disabled tenant is getting her tenancy terminated, legally, and according to required procedure. She has kept animals without telling the LL (I am assuming that her rental agreement prohibits animals), these animals have done and are doing damage, and that she cannot care for them, and thus the LL is unwilling to continue her tenancy.

The only right that she may have is to ask for a reasonable accommodation from the LL in the form of allowing her to keep her pets in view of her disability. But she has been unable to care for the animals and continues to be unable to adequately care for them.

A judge will likely try to find a mutually compatible solution, but I don't see that there is one to be had.

So, in answer to the poster's questions:

" What happens if the tenant refuses to move out? "

She gets evicted.

"Does the LL then file for a Notice of Eviction, and if that gets done, is it really possible that a sheriff will show up and physically put this disabled woman out of the duplex? "

Yes. There is more to it then just filing for what you call "a Notice of Eviction", but if you go through all the steps of he procedure, a sheriff will show up and physically put this disabled woman out of the duplex.

" What if the woman has no place to go? Is the LL forced to keep her as a tenant? "

NO. A judge will likely treat her very leniently, but not to the extend of denying an order of eviction. The judge has responsibility to see that she finds a place to go and may give her extra time, but she will ultimately have to go. If she is represented by an attorney, the judge will probably order the attorney to work on seeing that she will have somewhere to go, including giving her and the attorney time to do their work, but ultimately, she will have to go.

Everybody PLEASE stop saying "disabled tenant". It has nothing to do with her disability. That would be illegal, and it is irrelevant.

She has been given proper notice that her rental is not being renewed - no reason needed.

OR

She needs to move because she has violated the Rental Agreement. Animals, feces, non-payment of rent, or whatever else may happen happen that violates the agreement.

The tenant is disabled, and words cannot change that,

The only circumstances under which calling her disabled would cause trouble would be if she was being discriminated against, which is not the case, here.

She IS disabled, the judge may even call her disabled, she may call herself disabled in court, and thee is no law against called her condition accurately or what it is.

That her disability is irrelevant to this problem is obvious, except for the fact that everyone will feel empathy with her for her problem, but that doesn't change the fact that LL is entitled to cease renting to her, not because she is disabled, but because she is unable to carry out her responsibilities as a tenant and it doesn't seem that there is any reasonable accommodation that LL could make for her that would solve that problem.

Thee is no bogeyman here that needs to be afraid of.

Thank you ALL for your reply, and JB for your additional info, and special *thank you* to Moshe for the specifics and clarifications--and you're correct, there is no rent control here.

I realize the tenant being disabled has nothing to do with the termination but included it because it may come into play somewhere in this process, and Moshe put this into words that were more cogent and specific than I communicated.

DJ, many people will play the disabled card to garner empathy, when facts are black and white.

From what I know, her tenancy is being terminated, and nothing was said in the Notice about her pets or the health hazards, so there was no 3-Day Cure or Quit.

Fabgal: Evidently, neither you nor I know anything about San Diego. It seems that San Diego has a "Tenants’ Right to Know Regulations", San Diego Municipal Code §98.0730.

Under this ordinance,

" A residential tenancy of more than two years duration shall not be terminated, nor shall its renewal be refused, except for one or more of the following reasons: "

Thus, your "friend" had better study this ordinance (or get a competent San Diego eviction attorney) in order to decide on an appropriate reason for terminating the tenancy. One such following reason is

"the tenant has violated a lawful and material obligation or covenant of the tenancy";

another such reason is "The tenant is committing a nuisance or permitting a nuisance in, or is causing damage to, the rental-unit or to the appurtenances thereof or to the common areas of the housing complex containing the rental-unit. "

The issue of disability is still not relevant, but it is necessary to comply with the ordinance by specifying a valid and defensible reason. If you don't get it right, then the eviction will fail, and therefore I recommend letting an attorney handle it.

Oh, Moshe, thank you for the additional info--that is so helpful!