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A contractor I know has rented a
two car garage for approximately six months. The
garage is used for storage and it took a lot of time
to load materials into the garage. Now, after only
six months, the owner has informed my contractor
acquaintance that they need the garage back and he
will have to vacate. The question was, can they
just ask for it back legaly? The obvious answer, of
course, is yes.
The purpose of a lease is to
give both landlord and tenant a written contract
affecting all the terms and conditions of the
lease. The most obvious terms are the LENGTH of the
lease and rental AMOUNT. The lease then goes on
page after page with all other details, including
security deposits, hazardous materials, property
damage, holding over, etc., etc., etc. The problem
for my acquaintance is that this was done on a hand
shake, rather than a written agreement. The hand
shake deal is fine and results in a MONTH TO MONTH
tenancy. Month to month tenancy does not have to be
in writing, though as usual I strongly advise that
ANY agreement for rent (of anything) be spelled out
in writing. In that case, you will, hopefully,
never be in front of a judge with “he said, she
said.”
In this case, the hand shake
agreement resulted in a month to month tenancy with,
by law, a 30 day notice. The landlord is therefore
only obligated to give a 30 day notice for change in
terms or a 30 day notice to quit. For instance, the
landlord only needs to give 30 days notice to raise
the rent $50 a month or $100 a month or WHATEVER.
“Whatever,” by the way, seems to have a meaning all
to itself these days. Semantics aside, it is
obvious that any term or condition can be modified
with 30 days notice to the tenant. Is this fair?
Absolutely. Please realize that the landlord went
through some hassle, preparation, credit check, etc.
to rent the property in the first place. With
apartments or commercial properties, the landlord
would go through much greater expense, involving
painting, cleaning, remodeling, etc. With a month
to month tenancy, the TENANT also has a right to
leave with merely a 30 day notice. A month to month
tenancy is by nature a temporary, renewable
tenancy. At any time, either the landlord or the
tenant can give the other a 30 day notice, unless
otherwise provided in writing. As I said before,
even a month to month tenancy should be in writing,
in which case this exact situation would have been
spelled out.
So how does the contractor
protect himself next time? Simple: Ask for a lease
for one year, two years, six months or whatever the
situation warrants. If you are the tenant, I
suggest a fixed term lease WITH an option to extend:
perhaps a one year lease with an option to extend
for another year or two. The terms of that
extension will also be included in the lease.
It is always easy to feel that
one’s lot in life is “not fair.” Try to look at it
from the other person’s point of view for a moment.
If you have the gift of being able to look at things
from the eyes of another, your life will proceed
with much less stress and aggravation. |
GLENDALE BUILDING DEPARTMENT DESIGN REVIEW BOARD
UPDATE
I have been planning to do a
follow up on my Glendale Building Department horror
stories. The follow up article was intended to be
specific examples of Design Review Board horror
stories. Though I have never been to a design
Review Board meeting, I have had many, many first
hand accounts of problems with one or the other
Design Review Board over the years. In trying to
research the column, one of the Design Review Board
members (Design Review Board No. 2) was gracious
enough to spend approximately 15-20 minutes with me
on the phone. This person strongly defended the
Design Review Board concept and purpose and “maybe”
convinced me that a plan consultation with an
architect would in most cases save many of the
problems that arise.
In fairness for my upcoming
article, I have decided to punish myself by forcing
myself to listen to 4 hours of actual Design Review
Board meetings on tape. I will also be scheduling a
meeting with the owner of a proposed house that has
had major problems with one of the Design Review
Boards over a LONG period of time. In the meantime,
I am soliciting any “pro” or “con” letters about
personal experiences with a Glendale Design Review
Board. After discussing this with the
aforementioned member of Design Review Board No. 2,
I was told that, on occasion, an applicant actually
thanks the Design Review Board for their help in
improving a project. I am not saying this tongue in
cheek, as I certainly believe that does happen. The
real question is, one in a thousand, two in a
thousand, or 500 in a thousand? In the meantime, we
shared horror stories, including one that this
member was aware of involving the repainting the
trim on a house because the actual trim paint did
not match the color sample on the paper color chip
submitted with the plans.
Peter Rosenthal
VIP Trust Deed Company |
