The eviction process uses an unlawful detainer (court action) to evict a tenant. A landlord may not use illegal self-help remedies such as turning off utilities, changing locks, or removing a tenant's personal property from the unit. If a landlord does this, they will be liable for actual damages in addition to fines per day. A landlord may not use threats or interfere with a tenant's quiet enjoyment and will be liable for each violation. The eviction process contains three m

The Recording Act of California provides that any instrument affecting title to (or possession of) real property may be recorded. A deed must be acknowledged in a formal declaration by a notary public to show that he/she did execute the document. A notary public is a licensed officer that witnesses the acknowledgment, which protects against forgery. A valid document is recorded with the county recorder within the county where the property is located. When the recorder receiv

A mobile home is a structure designed for human habitation and includes a manufactured home. In a mobile home park the tenant-resident owns the mobile home, which is personal property and the park owner owns the space between the coach, which is real property. The health and safety code and the civil code deals with various aspects of the ownership of mobile homes. The Mobile Residency Law provides that a person who owns a mobile home that is in a park may not be charged a fe

A light, air and view easement is a negative easement created by grant that prevents an adjacent landowner from building a structure or planting trees that would prevent sunlight or air from reaching the dominant estate. In California, no landowner has an absolute right to sunlight and air circulation or to a view over adjoining lands. In Ekstrom v. Marquesa at Monarch Beach Homeowners Association, 168 Cal.App.4th (2008), Ekstrom sued the HOA to force a trimming and removal o

Succession is the legal transfer of a person's interests in real and personal property to as an intestate and is said to die intestate. The laws of intestate succession governs the transfer of property from a decedent to an heir when the decedent fails to dispose of the property by will. The probate code provides that any part of the estate of a decedent not effectively disposed of by will passes to the decedent's heirs as prescribed in this part. If there is a surviving spou

There are several advantages to choosing a trust instead of a will to dispose of property after death. A trust may be established while the settlor is alive and the property that would constitute the decedent's estate may be placed into the trust before the settlor dies, which may be administered when the settlor dies or just before death. A trust is a three party relationship where one party, known as the trustor or settlor places property into the possession and control of

Adverse possession is the ability to obtain title by occupying land for a statutory time period without the permission of the owner. In essence, adverse possession rewards the occupier who makes use of the land, and also gives the property owner an incentive to manage his or her ownership. Requirements open possession notorious possession continuous for the statutory period hostile adverse to a claim of right *in some instances, payment of the property taxes on the disputed p

The California Probate Code defines a will to include any testamentary instrument which appoints an executor or revokes or revises another will. California recognizes witnessed wills, statutory form wills and holographic wills. Witnessed Will A witnessed will is valid in California if its execution complies with California laws or the laws of the state which it was executed. The will must be: in writing, signed by the testator or someone else in the testator's presence, and w