ACCESS TO JUSTICE
LandlordTenant Arena by Andrew V. Gabriel
The American dream goes hand in hand with the idea of real property ownership1. Once an individual is able to own property, they have achieved the goal that generations of families have strived to reach. Many resort to renting out their property either to afford the very property they own or to act as an investment with a reasonable rate of return. From there, the landlord-tenant relationship is born. As a member of the CCCBA’s Lawyer Referral & Information Service, I experience first hand that many landlords and tenants in the Bay Area are not aware of the rights and obligations being a landlord or tenant entails. I am not talking about the large, multinational corporation that owns several hundred units who have access to their in-house counsel on speed dial. Rather, more likely, it is the family that purchased a new home and is renting out their first home that has no clue of what is involved in being a landlord. Or the individual that has taken a massive leap into real estate and purchased their first multi-unit building. Where do those landlords turn when they have a problem tenant? And what about tenants? While there are many non-profit organizations in the Bay Area that assist tenants, many non-profits have strict contingencies on their grant funding that limit how much an individual or family can make to receive assistance. With rents as high as they are in the Bay Area, one may simply not be able to afford both rent and to qualify for legal assistance from nonprofits. Where do those tenants turn to when they have issues with their landlords? All of these questions present issues with access to justice, especially in the arena of unlawful detainers. Unlawful detainers are the expedited proceeding which makes it so that landlords can evict without burdening themselves with the cost and time associated with a full civil lawsuit. While the Judicial Council2 has taken steps to try and make the process as user-friendly as possible, there are simply more questions than answers in filling out the available forms. Throw in a global health pandemic, laws that vary county by county and city by city, and a landlord or tenant finds themselves in a minefield of information, and any mis-step results in delays or disaster. As an attorney practicing landlord-tenant law, the comment I receive most from new clients, whether landlord or tenant is,
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