Mom has passed away. Caregiver won't vacate home. Was notified in writing services no longer needed. Caregiver was employee not tenant according to Calif. law. Caregiver was paid $6,000.00 per month in pay, along with free rent including half the building being used as storage for caregiver's belongings. Caregiver has received written notice service is no longer needed and the same day caregiver showed me where he is defecating and urinating in every room on the carpet. His cat is also defecating and urinating in all the rooms. How do I get this guy out?
You can file paperwork at the County Courthouse. You generally do not need a lawyer to begin eviction process. However due to COVID many evictions are on hold and even if they have started processing them evictions that were filed 18 months ago would be done before yours would.
It might be worth it to consult with a lawyer to determine if there are any other options for you.
Maybe offer a chunk of money if he moves out and a bonus if he moves out quickly.
Or perhaps help him find a new live-in job.
Or help him find a new place, prepay several months of rent as an incentive to get him out.
If you can get him physically out of the house, change the locks, throw his stuff on the lawn, and take back the house.
Seek the advice of your will/trust attorney as this house must be sold to satisfy probate or will/trust. My God, what if he acquires a homeless GF with minor children, then you have problems that are going to be harder to get rid of. What if he slips and falls or they do, another big lawsuit opportunity.
And for everyone else thinking of hiring one 24/7 live in. DO NOT EVER. That is basically hiring a homeless person. If anything, such a person should be nights only and their stuff should be kept to a minimum. Do not allow them to receive mail there as a permanent address. And indy or not, know your minimum wage and hour laws, such as overtime.
Some jobs like restaurant waitstaff and live-in caregivers do not have to pay minimum wage. Live-in caregivers work on salary not hourly.
The poster will probably have to serve this guy with Notice To Quit/Eviction. In some states (California may be one of them) people living in a place can have squatter's rights.
Have you contacted local law enforcement, shown them the contract, notice to vacate and his destruction of the property?
I would start there, turn all utilities off, serve him with a 5 day letter to pay or vacate along with a huge rental amount.
I will tell you, my experience in NV, squatters have serious rights, I would check that law in CA before I used that.
A good real estate attorney or even a good property management company can guide you on what the fastest course of action is. I would check into willful destruction of private property as well. Kinda scary this nutter was a caregiver.
Just a mention that turning lights off was considered a “terroristic action” when my uncle turned them off when squatters moved into an empty house on his property. (Might have been made worse in that he was carrying a shotgun when he walked onto his own property and turned the lights off on an outdoor switch). Uncle ended up in trouble with the law. They had to go through full eviction to get the folks out. It went on for several months.
I agree check the Ca laws on eviction.
Was there a contract between the live-in and the homeowner? If so, it should have stipulated the need to move out if person was placed in a facility or passed away. But really, this is a given when your a caregiver, u know once the person is no longer in the home, your employment is no more. Think you may have a battle on your hands. You can't just change locks and throw his belongings out. You maybe able to turn off some of the utilities. Has he been paid up until the client died? Is he now paying rent? I would say, turn off the electric. He can buy a generator. Heat... not sure if you can turn it off since temps there are in the 50s, heat needs to kept on 55 just so pipes don't freeze. Turn off any cable and internet. If he wants them, he can pay for them. In the long run you want to do this legally. It may end up that you have to go to court, the judge gives him a date. If he does not get out by that date, then the police escort him out. You make sure that all his belongings are out of the house at that time. He leaves nothing behind. Make sure the police are aware that he takes everything and write a report saying that.
You will need a lawyer I would say. Those fees can come out of the estate. An executor never uses their own money.
1) look up and print a legal notice for eviction after looking up and understanding local exceptions rent control laws and associated statutes.
2) ask said tenant in writing to voluntarily leave, wait a reasonable amount of time for his response, if unsatisfactory continue to item 3
3) serve the eviction notice to tenant, no matter what you call him
4) wait the obligatory term to enforce the action, he may put up a fuss saying nearly anything
5) if you do anything smart for yourself ever, get a real estate attorney well versed in probate etc NOW
the judge will slam you and could possibly award monetary compensation even continued tenancy for a limited term
DO NOT listen to any of the advice here regarding tossing him or his things out
you will be exposed to monetary liability
If the law considers him an employee, then employment rules apply to him.
When a person leaves a job or gets fired, their former boss does not let them continue coming into work evert day until they're ready to move on.
Go talk to the cops and see what they say. If California is a state that has squatter's rights you will actually have to wait until he steps out of the house. Squatter's rights end when a person goes outside the building.
The sure fire way to get his a$$ out and keep it out, is tell him you're putting the house for sale and are doing an extermination for bugs.
Call an extermination service and have them do it. Itwon't even cost you that much, and you'll be able to recap the expense out of the estate.
The caregiver and his cat will have no choice but to vacate. Once he's out you move his stuff into a storage unit. Tell him where it is and change the locks.
However, the family should be aware that this guy with minimal effort could get hooked up with an employment lawyer as they were paying illegally low wages with illegal wage/hour conditions.
You are right now in the crosshairs. If the tenant wants to you will likely end up paying more if you dont disengage sooner than later.
A qualified lawyer will know how to shorten the wait times.
If you do not, the minimum is 60 days, if you tent the property without making provisions for the tenant and and any pet, you are going to be slammwed in court,
believe me or don't
I know you cannot just throw this guy out or follow through on some threat that results in him staying at a hotel likely at your expense for probably 60 days at least
is there some type of employment document stating terms?
I didn't think so
plus, OP calls one of the terms; "FREE RENT"
any kind of rent suggests tenancy.
If I can figure it out what do you think a judge will do?
If said tenant gets a FREE from the county aid attorney, the case is bounced around before a judge even hears it
the op will get reamed if the op doesnt follow eviction protocol. The real issue there, is even the eviction exposes the op to free county appointed attys. Simply put, op needs to be quietly resolving the issue in a way the county will get behind. If op tries any suggested schemes to remove said occupant, tenant, squatter or any other name you may use to describe him, a smart atty or tenant will likely come away with a monetary award
You can't really do this all up and up in the Bay Area without paying much less than $200,000 a year. Whereas you can put elders (even with MC) in a board and care for $57,600/year and would not have caused these issues. ANY person who says they are doing 24/7 is at least marginally homeless.
I'd say gift him a month at the Super 8 or Motel 6 for however long it takes to liquidate the house and for everyone to get paid. Get legal advice on this however.
The bottom line is this. Dying at home if you need 24/7 is only plausible if the elders or you spend what is realistically not $72K, but more like $240K. Cutting corners on everyone's part has now resulted in a situation where the CG is literally telling his employer he has defecated on the floor. And for how many years with Mom was this going on.Was that really better than putting her in a board and care that would have started at $58K?
Don't mess around - he is trying you on- its called bullying!
Best of luck
Kath
This Caregiver could have left at any time. Believe me, he probably knows the law better than anyone. No one needs to be a slave. He agreed to the arrangement, legal or not. He is as much at fault as the client if no taxes were taken out. I worked at a job that those coming in for help knew how to work the system. This guy knows what it will take this Executor to get him out.
This guy thinks he knows the law. He might know about squatter's rights somewhere, but he clearly does not know that he will get in big trouble with the IRS for accepting $6,000 a month tax-free that they don't know about. The poster and family need to call his bluff because he won't say a word about the pay arrangement they all had.
You're exactly right about it not being the executor's fault. Taking out the taxes from his pay was the responsibility or whoever was paying him at the time. It was also his responsibility to not accept that kind of payment. Pretty much all caregivers have a side-hustle that pays in cash or they quietly accept cash from their employers on the side. No one could make a living at being a homecare worker if they only accepted their agency's pay. Not unless they were to work 80 hours a week or more and nobody who has to deal with needy, elderly people deserves that hell so they can have the privilege of eating and not being homeless.
Some jobs are paid salary not hourly. Live-in caregivers do not get hourly pay so there is no overtime after eight hours of work. They also do not have to be paid minimum hourly wage. Some jobs do not have to pay minimum. Like restaurant waitstaff and hairdressers.
The argument of the squatting caregiver getting paid under-the-table will not hold up in front of a judge if it comes to that and it very likely won't. He won't make an issue about taxes not being taken out because he will get in more trouble than the family who hired him will. What will happen if he literally makes a federal case about being paid in cash, is he will have to pay whatever the amount of taxes would have been at $6,000 a month for however long he was paid that sum. The guy is a squatter so he doesn't have any money. When the little guy cheats the IRS, gets caught and can't afford to pay it back, he goes to jail. Rich people and corporations do it all the time, but the little guy doesn't get away with it. So the poster and family don't have to worry too much.
They're probably going to have to call the exterminators for fumigating to get him out. They could cut the electricity and water to the house too.
Or smoke him out. The family would have to break a few windows to deliver the smoke canisters. If the house has fire places even better. Someone will have to go up on the roof and drop a few canisters that way.
The smoke is non-toxic but he'll leave the house.
To do anything regarding that property (an asset of the Estate), it has to, HAS TO, be done properly and by the Executor or the probate atty on record for the Estate. Utility companies, contractors, pest control co will want to have it that someone legally responsible is requesting actions / work to be done.
Any reputable pest control co will want signed contract by a legal representative with an advance & CC on file and it’s the legal representatives role to get any pets or people off the property before work / fumigation is done. Might be other local requirements, we had our free standing house tented for Formosan termites and had to get a sign off acknowledgment by adjacent property owners & done within set daytime hours.
Has probate opened & are u the Executor?
If you are not, then someone in your family needs to find the will, get a probate atty (I’d suggest one that does litigation, most do not) and open probate. Then it’s on the appointed Executor to deal with this. Please pls pls tell us that there is a will, an Executor and things r being done properly…..
i ask as it’s unclear WHY the caregiver feels they can stay and give you crap. There’s a reason why they are so bold. Does the “caregiver” have an existing contract & WHAT does contract reads for their status after death? Not unusual for a 24/7 live in to have a guaranteed period of time to continue to stay on at the property…. Like 4 taking care of pets, safeguarding house & after death non monetary compensation.
BUT
if there’s no contract, then that caregiver can say that mom told her she could stay on till whatever. If they have actually had mom’s address become their legal address, its their residence. Way way sticky as not a squatter nor a tenant. Stuff like this not a DIY and your probate atty or their real estate atty associate needs to deal with this.
If there is no will, then someone needs to find probate atty that does lineal heirship in California to get someone appointed to get on dealing with this clusterF. If no will, I’d be way concerned that nasty CG will say mom included her as a heir, that mom gave their stuff in the house.
Did mom pay 6K a mo properly? Like was FICA done? if the person was 24/7 w out a contract or FICA and no other CG hired to give nasty time off, nasty could go after wage theft violations done by mom and they could file it as a debt against the estate. Will it hold up…. Probably not but will muck up the probate process if entered as a debt. The executor will imo end up negotiating $ paid to nasty to both to get nasty out of the house & to ever sell the house so there’s $ to do a distribution of assets for probate. Hopefully mom died with $ so the executor has funds to pay for probate costs and property upkeep.
I seriously doubt Vallejo police are going to help with this situation. So then you are stuck with getting an attorney to file an unlawful detainer and all the time that will entail.
I like the rat/extermination idea a lot. That coupled with a "severance package" of $3,000 cash and an offer of a "nice" reference letter might actually work. All the letter has to do is be factual: He worked taking care of mom from this date to that date. His duties included X. The job was eliminated when Mom died.
Then if anyone calls you, you crisply tell them that it's just like you said in the letter. Any potential employer would see between the lines. You don't have to worry about them.
He is illegally spreading biohazard waste. Everything else he is doing lame but squatter rights who knows but the poop - flat out illegal...should be some sort of legal injunction to stop the poo
The dude has to go out to buy food or something, right? When he does, change all the locks.
Also cut off water and other utilities.
But others are correct, a lawyer might be needed here.
Good luck.
throw the cat outside. Call the police if he bangs on the door. Put all his stuff outside.
Change the locks.. great idea.
Was curious if there was any relationship between you and the caretaker at all? Did you discuss anything after she died, thanked him for his service, talked about next steps? Not that it matters but it seems he is either mad at the way he was dismissed and/or he is completely insane. You will get your best advice from a good lawyer and don't wait another minute to get it. Keep us posted please!