by Henry Chuang and Julia M. Wei

            In these unprecedented times, many local and state governments have taken various steps to protect tenants, in some instances including commercial tenants, from eviction.  On the state level, on March 27, 2020 Newsom issued an Executive Order effectively delaying all residential unlawful detainer actions.  The text of the Executive Order is here.  The Order gave all residential tenants an additional 60 days to respond to an eviction lawsuit if the tenants notified their landlord that they were unable to pay rent due to Covid-19 issues.  The California order did not stop or delay any evictions that were occurring for other reasons such as illegal activity on the property or an owner move-in.  This protection is to last until May 31, 2020 unless otherwise extended.

In California, real estate often has multiple owners due to investment structure or inheritance of family property.

Co-owners of California real estate can hold title to the property as joint tenants or as tenant-in-common.  These two types of ownership have different legal ramifications and tax treatment.  However, under the law, each co-owner has equal rights to the property regardless of co-ownership percentage.