Can roommates sign a new lease without me? (Oakland, August: apartment, leases)

[Roawa]

I live in Oakland, CA

I will try to keep the drama out but some of it is relevant.

I moved into this apartment as a sublessee last March, but when the lease expired at the end of May I signed on and am now on the lease. I've lived here over a year.

When I moved in, one leaseholder had her boyfriend living here. Nobody told me before I moved in, but after I moved in my other roommates were clearly not ok with it and complained frequently. She insisted her boyfriend didn't live there but he obviously did, and we decided to make him pay rent. We talked it over with her, and she finally agreed to pay extra rent for her boyfriend. She also was planning on moving out in August (after the new lease would start), so we signed the new lease (the one I'm now on) without her. Turns out in August her boyfriend moved out but not her. She still lives here, but is not on the lease. The other two roommates and I are all signed on the current lease.

In September, my partner moved into my room, and we pay the same extra rent that the first person had paid for her boyfriend. She is not on the lease either. All of this is arranged between us as roommates and does not involve the landlord at all. We are violating the lease, which only allows four people in the dwelling, but there have been five people living here the entire time I've lived here (four roommates plus one boyfriend/girlfriend). I understand issues regarding us violating the lease, and that the landlord could terminate on that basis. I also know we are "jointly and severally" liable for the lease.

My question is actually about whether our roommates, possibly in coordination with the landlord, can kick either me or the other roommate (the one not on the lease) out, as our lease is expiring again at the end of next month. One of my roommates has already sent her a "written notice" via text. I've tried explaining to him that as a tenant he has no authority to kick anyone else out, but he seems to really believe he does. I've let both him and the roommate being "evicted" know that as a leaseholder I don't agree she has to move out, but he says he will hire an eviction company to remove her if she doesn't move out. He also said he's "arranged" with the landlord to renew the lease without me on it starting in June, meaning he thinks he can "evict" me as well. The landlord has given no notice, and I plan on calling the cops if our roommate removes any of her things. He (the roommate) expects her to move out the beginning of next month, 30 days from whenever he sent that text.

So here are my specific questions. Was it legal for us to remove the first girl last year without her formal consent? And would it be legal for the remaining two leaseholders to remove me without my consent (on the new lease)? Can the landlord agree to do that, or does he have to not renew the entire lease, and then sign a new one with the other two? If it is legal to remove someone from the lease, can individual leaseholders be evicted, or does the landlord have to evict the entire household? What is the procedure for a landlord to evict a single person who is not on the lease but is a "tenant" (the other one being "kicked out" has lived here for over two years and was one of the original lease signers)? Keep in mind that I am violating the lease by having my partner live here, but I am a signatory, while my other roommate (the one who received the "eviction" text) is not on the lease but not violating it in any way (anymore). If it matters, the landlord has so far given us no complaint about too many people living here, but he has suggested not renewing both last year and this year, for unrelated reasons.

I'm looking for a new place, but I don't want to get kicked out if I don't find one. The other girl does not plan on moving at all. My roommate who is trying to kick us out has a sort of God complex and I know he can't do anything on his own, but I'm mainly concerned with what the landlord can do. Sorry for the complicated issue, but I've had a really hard time finding anything that specifically answers these questions so I felt I had to explain everything.

[beb0p]

I am assuming this is not a rent controlled unit.

Long story short, only the landlord has the power to kick tenants out. But it also sounds blatantly clear that the landlord choose to work with your male roommate and exclude both you and your female roommate. The landlord is under no obligation to put your name on the lease just because you have been living there. It's a free market and your landlord is free to choose who he leases or doesn't lease his house to.

If your name is not on the lease, you are not a tenant. And since you are not a tenant, you can be kicked out of the house because you have no legal right to be there. That's the bottom line.

You can argue that a 60-day notice should have been served to you and your female roommate. It can buy you time but it will not change the fact that you guys are no longer tenants. If your female roommate insists on living there, she is effectively a squatter and I don't see that ending well. Yes, she can possibly drag it on for a few months but eventually she will have to move. Even if the landlord doesn't care, I imagine the God complex male roommate can call the cops on her for transpassing or even act as the landlord's representative (with landlord's permission of course) to do the paperwork and get the ball rolling.

My suggestion: your female roommate should just move out.
.

[Ceece]

Rule of thumb and life lesson: boyfriends, girlfriends, best friends since kindergarten and relatives down on their luck are not to "move in" or stay more than a few days and ONLY THEN with the approval of everyone on the lease. It doesn't matter if they are in your room or not, it's not something a reasonable person does. Don't accept other people doing it and don't do it yourself. A lease always has an end, if you didn't want to live with your partner prior to signing it you sure as hell can wait until it's up and find a new place, together. Anything else is just ridiculous.