Lease, Addenda, and Disclosures

Below you'll find some information regarding Leases, Addenda, and Disclosures.  This list does includes, but not limited to the following:

Joint and Severally - what does this mean?

In Basic Language:

For a residential lease, joint and several liability means that each tenant is jointly AND separately responsible for the entire rent amount and for any damages.

According to Nolo, here’s what it means for tenants:

• One for all. You can demand the entire rent from just one cotenant. The rent-sharing understanding the tenants have with one another is immaterial to you. In other words, even if one tenant pays $400 for a tiny room and another roommate pays $800 for a master suite, each tenant is still liable for the full $1,200 rent, even if some of the tenants flake out.

• All for one. Even innocent cotenants will suffer the consequences of one cotenant’s misdeeds. Unfair as it seems, the crazy party that one roommate threw can result in a termination notice directed to all tenants.

In Legal Terms:

“Joint and several liability” is where two or more persons are liable in respect of the same liability.

Under joint and several liability or all sums, a claimant may pursue an obligation against any one party as if they were jointly liable and it becomes the responsibility of the defendants to sort out their respective proportions of liability and payment.

This means that if the claimant pursues one defendant and receives payment, that defendant must then pursue the other obligors for a contribution to their share of the liability.

This obligation is normally spelled out in a lease clause, in leases which are signed by two or more tenants.

AB 432 Electronic Signatures

Electronic signatures have been added to the list of defined terms used within the California Code of Civil Procedure. Electronic signatures have been defined as “an electronic sound, symbol, or process attached to or logically associated with an electronic record and executed or adopted by a person with the intent to sign the electronic record.” This law paves the way for courts to use electronic signatures, by declaring that electronic signatures by a court or judicial officer will have the same effect as an original signature.  -from KTS 2016 Legislative Update