Q: Is it “illegal” for a landlord to continue taking rent payments without signing a new lease ???

A: No, it is not illegal. First, your original 2016 lease very likely states that at the ens of the lease, if the tenancy continues, it will be month to month. Second, even if the lease did not say so, by paying monthly, and the landlord accepting the payments, a month to month tenancy was implied.

A: In California, when a fixed-term lease expires and the tenant continues to occupy the rental property with the landlord's consent, the tenancy automatically converts to a month-to-month tenancy by default. This is sometimes referred to as a "holdover tenancy" or "tenancy at will."

Under this arrangement, the terms of the original lease generally continue to apply, with the exception that the tenancy is now on a month-to-month basis. The landlord can continue to accept rent payments, and the tenant is still obligated to pay rent and follow the terms of the original lease.

It is not illegal for a landlord to accept rent payments without signing a new lease after the original lease term expires. In fact, it is common practice and legally permissible.

However, both the landlord and tenant have the right to modify the terms of the tenancy with proper notice. The landlord can change the terms of the tenancy, such as increasing the rent, by giving the tenant proper written notice as specified by California law (usually 30 days for a month-to-month tenancy if the rent increase is less than 10%, or 60 days if the rent increase is greater than 10% or if the tenant has lived in the unit for more than a year).

In your case, the fact that you continued living in the rental property and the landlord continued accepting rent payments from July 2016 to September 2022 without a new lease indicates that you were likely in a month-to-month tenancy during that period, which is legal in California. Signing a new lease in September 2022 would have created a new fixed-term tenancy from that point forward.