Facts: A residential tenant defaults on their lease payments. The landlord gives the tenant a three-day notice to pay rent which lists cash or check as the required means of payment in one paragraph and personal check, cashier’s check, money order or cash as options in the next. The notice also misspells and omits part of the payee’s name. The tenant does not pay, and the landlord files an unlawful detainer (UD) action to recover possession of the property from the tenant.
Claim: The tenant seeks a dismissal of the UD action, claiming the three-day notice is unenforceable since an ambiguous three-day notice which inconsistently lists the allowed means of payment and contains a misspelled and inaccurate name of the payee is fatally defective.
Counterclaim: The landlord claims the UD action is enforceable since they timely provided a three-day notice to pay rent which included some consistently listed means of payment and the address of the named payee.
Holding: A California appeals court holds the three-day notice to pay rent was defective and the UD action cannot be maintained since a three-day notice to pay rent requires unambiguous means of payment and an accurate name of the payee.
Also at issue in this case:
May a landlord list a corporation as the payee in a three-day notice to pay rent?
Facts: A residential tenant defaults on their lease payments. The landlord gives the tenant a three-day notice to pay rent which lists a corporation as the payee instead of the landlord or an individual person. The tenant does not pay, and the landlord files an unlawful detainer (UD) action to recover the property.
Claim: The tenant seeks a dismissal of the UD action, claiming the three-day notice to pay is unenforceable since it must name an individual as payee and instead named a corporation.
Counterclaim: The landlord claims the three-day notice to pay is enforceable since it named a corporation as the payee and a corporation qualifies as a person.
Holding: A California appeals court holds the landlord may maintain a UD action to evict the tenant based on a three-day notice to pay rent which names a corporation as the payee since the payee must be a person which includes corporations and other entities. [City of Alameda v. Sheehan (2024) 105 CA5th 68]
Related Form:
Three-Day Notice to Pay Rent or Quit – With Rent-Related Fees — RPI Form 575
Related RCDs
Related Reading
Real Estate Property Management Chapter 25: Delinquent rent and the three-day notice
Real Estate Property Management Chapter 30: Notices to vacate
