Landlord Counsel & Lease Drafting

Many disputes between landlords and tenants can be traced to a lease that was generic, outdated, or silent on the issue at the heart of the dispute. The firm drafts custom California residential and small-commercial leases that may address, where applicable, the Tenant Protection Act of 2019 (AB 1482), local rent-control or just-cause overlays, security-deposit handling under Civil Code § 1950.5, and the addenda landlords often need (pets, smoking, parking, mold, pest control, lead, bedbugs, and so on). Which provisions are appropriate depends on the property and the parties.

Already using a lease from a prior attorney, a property manager, or an online template? The firm can review it against current California law, flag provisions that may be unenforceable or that tend to invite litigation, and propose targeted revisions. The goal is a document a court is more likely to enforce and a tenant is more likely to respect — not a fifty-page rewrite for its own sake.

• Notices to pay or quit, cure or quit, and just-cause terminations
• Security-deposit accounting and itemized statements
• Habitability obligations and inspection protocols
• Rent-increase calculations under AB 1482 and any applicable local cap
• Owner-move-in, no-fault, and substantial-remodel terminations
• Responses to tenant repair-and-deduct or rent-withholding letters

Where a dispute cannot be resolved by counsel and a clean notice, the firm can prosecute unlawful-detainer (eviction) actions and related civil claims. Because California unlawful-detainer cases tend to move on a compressed schedule, landlords are encouraged to consult counsel before serving notices to reduce the risk of procedural defects that can reset the timeline.

The firm does not represent tenants in landlord-tenant matters and does not accept tenant-side referrals on this practice area.