I live in West Hollywood, CA part of Los Angeles County., CA
A man and a woman showed up 3 days before the end of February, they wanted to rent a room in my 2bed/2bath apartment were I live. They said they will bring the money on the March 1st, I explain to them that the only way I could guaranty the place for them was if they paid me the whole amount, I had previous experiences were they said the same thing and never hear from them again, having to pay the entire rent for both rooms myself.
After a long conversation we agreed that they will give me $500 that day to prove their good intentions, ( a little less than 1/3 of the total ) and they'll give me the remaining amount on March 1st . The place was rented for the husband, who works close from my area but leaves far away, he needs to take a train and be at work @ 7AM, they ask me if it was okay for his wife to stay some nights, that was not a problem for me, I greed.
On the Feb 29 late at night she called saying that they had a problem with their bank and they will not have access to the money until Monday, but if it was okay for them to move, I agreed as long as they promised to pay the balance on Monday March 5. I sent her a text message the night before asking her if her husband could drop the money on his way to work, she said that it was not possible but that he gets out of work @ 3PM and he will bring the money then, the husband never showed up, I try to call her and text her and at one point she text that she will come herself tonight (March 5), after several hours I called & text her to see what time should I expect her, I never heard back from her.
They are not in the lease, I only signed a receive of the $500 as an advance for the rent were she wrote the balance would be paid on March 1st.
My problem now is that expecting to get the balance of the his rent on Monday I gave the landlord a personal check for the total amount of the apartment, and now that he never showed up my check wont clear at the bank and I'll have problems with the landlord,.
It's clear to me that they most have money problems and might not be able to pay me until weeks from now, it's a month to month rental with no deposit. Can I call them and tell them that I don't want to have her husband as a roommate, how much of the $500 can I keep, charge them proportionally the 6 days they use the room plus all the extra days that might take me to find another roommate, because now I will have to lower the price since the new person will probably will only want to pay for 3 weeks of March.
Can they refuse to move? If in the next 2 days they still don't show up or contact me can I go into their room and pack their things and put them in storage?
I might even be part of a scam, like spending 5 days vacation in a good area, and getting their $500 back at the end, a lot cheaper than a Hotel for sure.
Any advice will help me and be greatly appreciated. I want to do everything by the book and not get into trouble for not knowing every detail on Rentals Law.
Thanks in advance

