COVID-19 Housing Advise

Disclaimer: The materials provided on this page are for informational purposes only and are not intended to be legal advice. If you have any questions about or would like any advice on the topics provided on this website, please consult an attorney. ASUCD members may utilize ASUCD legal services

Renewal Leases

If you signed to renew your lease for the upcoming school year and you cannot pay the rent or come back to Davis to live because of the COVID-19 situation, here are your options:

  1. Find someone to take over your lease. Either the entire household wants out and you all find other people to take over the lease, or you individually are not moving in and you find someone to take over your portion and live with the other roommates.

    This is going to be difficult. There are many, many vacancies in Davis right now. However, to protect yourself, you should advertise for someone to take over your lease on as many forums as you can and keep track of anyone who contacts you and is interested.

  2. Negotiate with the landlord/leasing agent. Some landlords/leasing agents are offering buyouts of the upcoming leases. Some are offering to cancel the leases for 2 months worth of rent and whatever deposit has been paid, some 3 months and others 4 months. Others are taking a much harder stance and are not offering any kind of a buyout. However, it is a good option to try and buy out the lease if it is possible.

  3. Move out by the end of the lease term for this year, leave the place clean and turn in your keys. Make it clear, in writing, you are not staying, you are not paying rent for September, and ask for your deposit back.

Beware that if you stay past this year's end of lease term, you will be liable for the rent each and every month until the end of next year's lease term, unless you find someone to take over the lease. If you stay and you do not pay the rent, you will be evicted which will be on your record and could cause problems in finding rentals in the future. Even though there is a stay of evictions until November 1, you will eventually be evicted and you will owe the rent and possibly attorney's fees and costs. Do not stay if you are not going to pay the rent.

If you choose option 3, be prepared that at some point the landlord/leasing agent may sue for the unpaid rent. They will most likely wait until they have a renter moved in so they can determine exactly how much of a loss they incurred. It is unknown what the Court will do with cases like this, this is new territory. If you get served with such a law suit, do not ignore it. There are certain timelines for responding.

New Leases

If you signed a new lease and you cannot come to Davis, you have similar options to renewal leases above:

  1. Find someone to take over your lease. Either the entire household wants out and you all find other people to take over the lease, or you individually are not moving in and you find someone to take over your portion and live with the other roommates.

    This is going to be difficult. There are many, many vacancies in the housing in Davis right now. However, to protect yourself, you should advertise for someone to take over your lease on as many forums as you can and keep track of anyone who contacts you and is interested.

  2. Negotiate with the landlord/leasing agent. Some landlords/leasing agents are offering buyouts of the upcoming leases. Some are offering to cancel the leases for 2 months worth of rent and whatever deposit has been paid, some 3 months and others 4 months. Others are taking a much harder stance and are not offering any kind of a buyout. However, it is a good option to try and buy out the lease if it is possible.

  3. Make it clear, in writing, you do not intend to move in, you will not be paying rent, and you want to cancel the lease. If you do this, you need to be prepared that the landlord, at some point, may sue you for the unpaid rent. They will most likely wait until they have a renter moved in so they can determine exactly how much of a loss they incurred. It is unknown what the Court will do with cases like this, this is new territory. If you get served with such a law suit, do not ignore it. There are certain timelines for responding.

Obviously, the best option here is to negotiate some kind of buy out. If you can, you know the matter is resolved and there will be no law suit at some point. Unfortunately, it will take a cooperating landlord/leasing agent that wants to work something out before this will happen.