In the case of eviction many Californians believe the rights of the tenant under state law only apply to those who are evicted from residential buildings such as apartments, townhouses, or houses. However, this isn’t true. The role of property law in business is quite resilient.

If you’re a commercial tenant in the state of California, you and your business have a number of affirmative defensive actions you can take against your commercial property owner in an eviction case. The following are some of the most common defensive actions a business can take when they are facing unlawful detainer action:

Defense against retaliatory eviction
In residential properties, the property owner must give the current tenant a total of 60 days notice before they must leave the property if they have been living there for over a year. During this time, the property owner cannot act in such a way that may be threatening as this not only breaks property law, but also may be taken into account as a part of retaliatory eviction. Retaliatory eviction is when the property owner evicts, or attempts to evict, the commercial tenant for an inappropriate reason as an act of retaliation against the tenant for previous actions.

That is, if the tenant cited problems with the property and the property owner followed this complaint with evicting the tenant or raising the rent considerably. Under the law of the California Supreme Court, both commercial tenants as well as residential owners have the ability to defend themselves in court in the case of retaliatory eviction.

Defense against construction eviction
A commercial tenant is granted the right to peaceful and beneficial possession of the property in which they rent. Because of this, a tenant can argue against their eviction by citing construction problems with the property that interfere with their ability to live peacefully.

For instance, if a commercial tenant requires parking for their business, but the parking is not available or is being used by the property owner and the tenant is given an eviction notice after complaining it may be safe to argue that the tenant is being faces with construction eviction.

The role of property law in business is alive and well. If you’re a business being faced with unlawful detainer action, you can challenge your eviction case against your property owner with retaliatory eviction and construction eviction claims should you have evidence of either. Property law and the rights of the tenant during the eviction process do not only apply to residential tenants or property owners. The role of property law in business is yours to use at your proper defense.