We Buy Houses in Elk Grove, CA — for Cash

If your Elk Grove rental still has someone living in it, that's fine with us. It might be a family halfway through a one-year lease or a tenant who went month-to-month long ago. We buy occupied rentals and take over as landlord under the lease the tenants already have, so nobody has to pack.

The lease and the deposit go with the house

A sale doesn't cancel a lease in California. The buyer takes the house subject to it, and the rent and end date stay where they are. The security deposit moves too: under Civil Code §1950.5(i) you either hand what's left of it to the buyer and tell the tenant in writing, or give it back to the tenant. In a cash sale it's often settled as a credit in escrow, so nobody ends up chasing a check after closing.

What the Tenant Protection Act means for a sale

Once a tenant has lived in the house for 12 months, the owner needs a legal reason to end the tenancy (Civil Code §1946.2, part of AB 1482). Selling isn't one of them. A new owner who wants to move in, or take the house off the rental market, has a "no-fault" reason, and the tenant is owed one month's rent as relocation money within 15 days of the notice. An owner who ends a lease to move in has to do it within 90 days and live there for at least 12 months.

Rent increases are capped at 5% plus inflation, and never more than 10%, over any 12 months (Civil Code §1947.12). Both rules expire on January 1, 2030 unless the Legislature extends them.

Houses owned by individual landlords, rather than a corporation or a REIT, can be exempt from both rules. The catch is that the tenant must have been given the exact written exemption notice the law spells out. Check the lease for it. Whether that notice exists changes what the next owner can do, so it's worth knowing before you compare offers.

No rent control in Elk Grove, but there is a rental registry

Elk Grove hasn't passed its own rent control, so state law is what applies here. What the city does require is registration. Rentals with fewer than 16 units have to be registered under Municipal Code §16.20.1218; it costs $10, lasts three years, and doesn't come with routine inspections. If the house sits empty while you sell, vacant properties need their own $10 registration unless a sign with a contact name is posted (§16.17.400). The forms are on the city's rental registration page.

Showings without wearing out the tenant

To go inside for a showing you need to give written notice and come during normal business hours, and 24 hours' notice is presumed reasonable (Civil Code §1954). A listing can mean a lot of those visits. Selling to us means one walkthrough, booked around the tenant's schedule.

What we'll ask you for

• The lease, or a short note on the terms if it's month-to-month
• Current rent, the deposit amount, and any rent that's owed
• Whether the tenant got the AB 1482 exemption notice, and when
• Any open notices, repair requests or disputes

With that we can put a written offer together with the tenancy already priced in. For the longer version, including cash-for-keys and owner move-in, read our guide to selling a house with tenants in California. The Attorney General's landlord-tenant page covers the same rules in plain language.

General information, not legal advice. If a tenant dispute is already underway, talk to a landlord-tenant attorney before you sign anything.