The best thing to do when renting a property is to have all your paperwork in order to avoid problems. But everything gets complicated when the property doesn’t have permit issues to begin with. For example, a landlady in California terminated the lease with her tenants because they informed her of overgrown tree branches. Now, the tenants have 30 days to leave the property, and they have little to defend themselves because they live in an unpermitted unit.
Redditor myfourleafclover shared a disturbing photo on r/Tenant of a woman peering through the window of their house. According to OP, this elderly woman is their landlady, who has three detached properties near the main house on a wooded lot. All the neighbors get along well, and since the landlady struggles with maintenance, all the tenants usually help out with some chores. However, what led this landlady in California to terminate OP’s lease was precisely some overgrown branches. OP explains that there are several trees around the property, and some branches were growing very close to the roof of their house. So, myfourleafclover took photos and sent them to the landlady and asked how they could help, as the area is at high risk of fire.
The only thing OP received was the landlady telling her that she had 30 days to leave the property because her son was moving into OP’s unit. The strange thing is that OP and her other neighbors knew that the landlady never had children. In addition, the owner began spreading rumors about OP, such as ‘wanting to poison her dog, pull her battery out of her car, and trying to steal her house and her mail,’ according to OP. To make matters worse, the OP has seen on her camera how the landlady is constantly spying on the inside of her house from the windows. So, the OP believes that the woman is acting this way because of paranoia or because she smokes too much weed. Many Redditors agreed, saying things like:
I’m not saying what she is doing is right, but if she’s 84 it could be a health-related problem that is making her not think clearly. Also keep in mind her hearing and vision may be terrible, so maybe she thinks you are not even living there. I personally have an aging family member that loses things, blames me for it, and then takes my stuff when I’m around. It’s not easy to deal with. Do you have any family of hers that you can call?
Tasty_Method_8792
The problem itself is not the lease termination, because OP is going to move anyway, but he was unsure whether to take action or protect themselves in the meantime. What complicates matters is that the OP said the rental properties are “ADU/detached unpermitted units”. For this reason, many Redditors recommended that they leave without a legal fight.
