Can anyone advise me on my legal rights regarding eviction?

Written notice will be required. You would most likely be considered an occupant (in CA) rather than a tenant. The notice could be 7, 14, or 30 days. You can call the police and ask for the jurisdiction where the property sits.

This is not legal advice, simply my personal opinion.

You can always call the police and ask. They won’t evict you because of that. :o)

I was going to say if you were a tenant there’s usually a 90 day legal process to get you evicted but you don’t have a lease or a rental agreement. I think it would be up to the cousin living there and the great uncle how they treat you. I’m guessing they could dump you any day.

@Adirondackwannabe This is her home for 18 months and the owner of the property will have to give her written notice. Her status is that of occupant rather than tenant.

@perspicacious I don’t think she has any status. It’s not her house and she has no lease, verbal or written.

Since you have lived at this address for over a year and have your auto registration, as your address, only the legal owner can sign eviction notice papers on you. And, remember that the notice is not binding, until it has been served on you.

Then, you will have 30 days to vacate the house.

Is there more to this situation than you have told us?

@Adirondackwannabe It is her home. The owner allowed that. That gives her status and rights. She is not a guest.

@perspicacious I’d have to see an attorney’s perspective.Just because someone let’s you stay in the house doesn’t give you any rights. I know that sounds a little cold but I think it’s the law.

If you have lived there more than a year, they have to give you 60 days per California law. I’m not sure of the specifics in Contra Costa County. I do know that their laws are a bit stricter on Landlords than the rest of California.

@Adirondackwannabe You are talking to an attorney.

@perspicacious OK good. But she’s not a tenant. How does she gain any protection under those laws when she’s essentially a guest?

@MissAnthrope, the thing that sticks out to me is your statement, “As far as I know, my great-uncle owns the property, which he has given to his son (my cousin) to live in.”

I would find out for sure who owns the property.

But to answer your question, take a look at these sites and see if they help. There are also phone numbers to call to get additional info. Good luck Dear and don’t worry. It doesn’t help.

http://cc-courthelp.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=page.viewPage&pageID=1293

http://cc-courthelp.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=Page.viewPage&pageId=664

Where I live the law is as @john65pennington states. If you can prove that that is and has been your residence for a time then you can’t be just thrown out on the street.
I know, I just went through this with a tenant who had moved a boyfriend in with her. When she wanted him out, he wouldn’t leave and we as property owners had to go through the eviction process.

@MissAnthrope If the person you are living with doesn’t have a problem with you, will they speak up for you to the owner?

Good links but I think you’re missing one step. There is no tenant landlord relationship here. It’s her staying with someone without any contractual ties. Do the rental statues still apply with no lease?

I thought maybe the second link, Unnamed Occupant, may be closer to the situation, @Adirondackwannabe. I would call the proper jurisdiction and get information.

@Adirondackwannabe , in California, a verbal rental agreement is valid. She has a verbal agreement to sub-lease the space from the tenant. She The landlord would have to serve a 60 day notice to vacate. If she did not vacate, after 60 days, then the Landlord would be able to begin the eviction process (Which could take 30–90 days.)
Here is a PDF that explains your rights and responsibilities as a tenant in California Page 33 explains the circumstances under which the landlord can ask you to move. Remember, it’s not an eviction until the courts get involved. Written notice to move can be for any reason.

@bkcunningham ; If they know the name of the person they want to evict, especially if they are not interested in evicting everyone, then they don’t need to file the prejudgment claim and right to possession. When I evict someone, I always file it, because , what’s to prevent someone from moving someone else in the day before the Sheriff arrives to boot them out claiming a right to possession. It adds a few days, but saves a ton in the long run.

@Judi Good link. So she would fall under the single lodger in a private residence and no formal procedure is needed. The question would be how often she paid the owner for the utilities.

@Adirondackwannabe A verbal agreement and her driver’s license prove residence in many states. She wouldn’t need to pay utilities unless that was part of the verbal contract.

@SpatzieLover Check out the CA law in judi’s post. As a single lodger in a private residence she can be booted without any formal procedure as long as she gets as much notice as when the rent is next due. The only evidence of the rent would be the utility payments she has been giving her cousin.
See page 3.

Wow, thank you all so much for your answers, especially @Judi for the most detailed (and assuring) answer!

@john65pennington – Pinky swear, there is nothing much more to this story. I have never done anything bad towards any of my family. I’m a really good, conscientious person who often puts other people ahead of herself. The issue is that I have a royally f*cked family and I’m seeing now why my mom never wanted me to associate much with them when I was growing up. The cousin I’m living with has a daughter in her early 20’s who has been living on her own with a boyfriend and apparently is going to be moving back into the house. I just found this out yesterday, from my other cousin (the sister of the guy I’m living with).

The sister (Elena) and my great-uncle wield a lot of power in the family, whereas the guy I’m living with (Victor) is pretty passive and probably has very little say in whether I get to stay. The daughter is manipulative, spoiled, and used to getting everything she wants with the bat of her pretty eyelashes.. in this case, it’s apparently her own bathroom. The bathroom, of course, is my bathroom right now and we’d have to share. So, she went to Elena and laid it on thick.. Elena has nothing better to do than mess with my life and this is the second time she’s tried to organize my getting kicked out—completely out of the blue. I have no contact with her because she’s an evil person and I refuse to associate with that.

In any case, I’m glad to know that I have a bit of time, legally, to get my affairs in order. This is such a bad time for it, as my job is unstable, I’m trying to get into school, etc. I want to move and have wanted to move for a while, but whether I can afford it is another matter. So, I guess I’m being forced now to make some changes. I will be glad, at the very least, to be out from under my family’s thumb once I leave here.

@Adirondackwannabe She is not a guest nor a tenant. She is an occupant. She lives there, receives mail there, etc. This gives a person rights. The owner can get rid of her but she must give written notice. It varies in jurisdictions. A call to the police in the jurisdiction where the house is located should answer the question for her.

The lesson here is be careful when you let someone “stay with ya for a while.” They end up with some rights in your property.

I didn’t read everything between here and our last comments to each other but I noticed talk about verbal leases and subletting. I hope you ignored that unless the writer(s) had strayed off of the subject here.

In Michigan, what @perspicacious has written is true.
My renter had to get the police, the court system and me involved in getting her ex-boyfriend out of the house that she rented from me. It was a mess.

@MissAnthrope I hope that this doesn’t get ugly for you, especially since it is family. Good luck.