Can we evict tenant during this covid-19 no eviction order, if eviction has nothing to do with lack of rent.

Question

My cousin is living on my grandmother's property for free, despite not getting the ok to do so. My grandmother has dementia and he made her think he lived down the road and only needed to shower every once in awhile, but would sneak onto her property and stay in an abandoned trailer on the property out of sight.  
 
While there he has never paid any money and we want to remove him from the land. We gave him a week by week no cause eviction, but he is trying to play the Governor Brown no eviction order card. If we are not evicting him for lack of rent, then shouldn't the Governor Brown order not even come into play here?

Gregory L Abbott · Answer

There are many potential issues here.  First, if Grandma owns the property, only Grandma or her appointed agent has the authority to have someone removed.  If she has dementia, that could be a problem in court unless someone else has her POA or is a guardian or conservator for her.   The next question is whether there is any sort of a landlord-tenant relationship between Grandma and your cousin.  You said he has never paid any rent - did he ever agree to, regardless of whether he actually paid it?  If not, you likely do not have a landlord-tenant relationship between them.  That is important because without it, you do not belong in landlord-tenant court nor do you evict the cousin - you would need to seek a court Order ejecting him instead.  Eviction and ejection are similar in their end goals - get the person out, with the aid of the Sheriff if necessary - but how you get there legally is quite different and they are in different divisions of the court besides.  If it is not for failure to pay rent, you are technically correct that Governor Brown's proclamation would not apply BUT separately from her executive order, the court's are essentially closed through at least April 30, so you can't do anything about it in court before they reopen anyway, though you might be still able to file a lawsuit and have him served so his 30 days to file an appearance in court is at least running.  It remains to be seen how the courts will handle things that went on while they were closed, but you can at least try perhaps.  Regardless, neither eviction nor ejection are do-it-yourself projects.  Review everything with a local landlord-tenant attorney to chart your best way forward.  Just so you know, if you had filed to evict on a week to week termination notice, it is highly likely that your case would have been tossed out, with you owning the cousin's court costs and attorney's fees (possibly thousands of dollars) since you cannot have a week to week tenancy without it being documented in a written rental agreement signed by both Grandma/her agent and the cousin.  ANY mistake in either law or procedure by a landlord can get their case dismissed with those financial penalties so it may save you money in the long run to simply retain a local attorney to handle the matter for you.  Good luck.

Q: Can we evict tenant during this covid-19 no eviction order, if eviction has nothing to do with lack of rent.