My question involves landlord-tenant law in the State of: California
I need some help with my situation. I have moved in with my husband in the apartment that he was living in with a friend. The friend is the one that has the contract in his name. I moved in after we got married in February. We talked to the landlord at that time ( the friend and my husband) and wanted to change the contract in my name and my husbands. He agreed verbally but then never showed up to sign the papers he handed us. He told us to send the checks from us to pay the rent and we did. Our friend moved out in May and we stayed trying to reach the landlord and make everything in order. Our friend never renounced to his contract as we were still waiting to transfer it in our names.
Yesterday the landlord came to fix something in the house (finally answering my husband's call) and we found out (from a neighbor) that now the landlord feels that he has been lied to, that he does not recognize us as tenants and that he is starting the papers to evict us.
Can he do that? Every month since March he has been cashing the monthly rent checks that are in our names, with the address of this apartment we live in. Wouldn't this be considered that he agreed on us being the tenants?
Also, in July he sent a letter to inform us (addressed to our friend) that the rent will be increased starting August and to write who lives at the aparment. I have written down my name and my husband's and we both signed the paper. Now my mistake was that I did not make a copy of it, but in the same time, the landlord did not say anything that our friend's name was not on the reply and instead were our names.
How can he now say he doesn't even know us when he cashed our checks and received he letter with us agreeing on the rent increase?
What i think is that he now will ask us to apply again so that he can ask us a way higher rent on the apartment as the rates had gone up since February when we talked to him.
Thank you in advance for your answers. We are really trying to solve this as it is not the riht time for us to start looking for a different place and we did try to do everything right with him.

