Cash for keys is a negotiated surrender, not a legal process — which is why the agreement matters so much. What belongs in one, how it compares to the cost of an unlawful detainer, and why the City of Los Angeles regulates it under LAMC 151.31 with a mandatory disclosure and a 30-day tenant cancellation right.
No written lease does not mean no tenancy. California law turns a handshake arrangement into a month-to-month tenancy with the same protections as any other. The 30 and 60-day rules, why just cause still applies, and the narrow lodger exception under Civil Code 1946.5.
California has exactly one lawful way to remove a tenant: an unlawful detainer action in court. Which notice fits which situation, why just cause changes everything at twelve months, the 10-court-day answer window under AB 2347, and what self-help actually costs you.
You can sell a California house with tenants in it without their permission, but the lease runs with the property and the buyer inherits it. Showing rules under Civil Code 1954, the security deposit handoff, just cause after twelve months, and the three ways owners actually get this done.
A California partition action forces co-owners to divide or sell jointly owned property. Since January 2023 the rules changed: a court-ordered appraisal sets the value, co-owners get 45 days to elect a buyout, and the default sale is an open-market listing rather than an auction.
You can sell a California house with unpermitted work, but the state’s mandatory Transfer Disclosure Statement asks about it by name, in three separate line items, and an as-is clause does not waive the obligation. Here is what the law actually requires and how to decide whether to permit first.
A Heggstad petition asks a California probate court to confirm that a house belongs to a trust even though the deed was never changed. It is filed under Probate Code section 850, it takes at least 30 days of notice the court cannot shorten, and the order has to be recorded before you can sell.
The California small estate affidavit under Probate Code section 13100 cannot transfer real property at all — it reaches money, tangible personal property and securities. The procedure that does transfer a house is a different one, and since April 2025 it covers primary residences worth up to $750,000.
Probate for a Los Angeles County decedent’s estate is filed and heard at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse, and the first-paper filing fee is $435. Whether you can sell the house quickly depends less on the court’s calendar than on whether the personal representative holds full or limited authority.
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