CALIFORNIA

So on october 1st 2024 i was homeless and my friend sent me a text saying his roommate who was on the lease just randomly left the day before rent was due and that i could live there if i paid half of rent and utilities.

He let me move in that same night with no deposit or anything or even having to pay rent that night . i honestly didnt have any money for rent so i literally sold my car to be able to pay octobers rent and he knows that.

anyways, he also knew i didnt wanna be on a lease so he said lets keep it on the “lowkey” and that he wouldnt tell the leasing office.

ive been living here, paying half of rent and utilities, and getting my mail delivered to here since october 1st 2024. I have all of my payments documented through Zelle. i also have all of our text messages about our agreement documented.

On december 30th, he suddenly sent me a text saying that his sister got kicked out by her abusive boyfriend with her 3 kids and that she needed a place to stay and he told me that he needs my room vacant by TOMMOROW. I told him i understand the urgency but that I’m not gonna move out by tomorrow and that i’m not obligated to because i’m an unauthorized subtenant or de facto tenant.

he then sent me another TEXT on december 31st saying “please accept this as a 30 days notice as of today 12/31/2024 to vacate the premises”

he then moved in his sister and her 3 kids. he already had 3 kids to begin with, and they were all sharing a room to begin with. the sister is sleeping on the couch and the 6 children are in ONE room with my roommate. it’s a 2 bedroom apartment. i’m just mentioning this because i feel like this violates my rights and maybe the law in some way, i now feel uncomfortable to go downstairs because there’s a stranger sleeping down there and she was even using MY fridge.

yesterday he asked for this months rent and i literally don’t have it so i just said im withholding my portion of rent this month due to your multiple attempts at unjus, abrupt , and improper eviction.

HE THEN SAID:

“Since our original agreement was via text message, i am entitled to send you an eviction notice via text message.”

I asked him why he thinks that claim is accurate, and he just responded by saying the exact same thing in different phrasing…

is he correct? is a text message a valid eviction notice just because our original agreement was via text?