Unincorporated area of Alameda County. There’s a little apartment attached to our house. The tenant owes us rent, we’ve been trying to work with him, but even if he continues to be late on rent, we want to convert the space into a work area. We no longer want to rent it out. We don’t want to live in the unit but use it as a workspace.

Answer: You are subject to statewide rent and eviction controls (AB-1482). It makes no difference how you want to use the space; you are entitled to reclaim it for your own purposes as you see fit.

This would require 60 days' notice and a relocation payment equal to one month’s rent. 

However, since the tenant owes past due rent, the easiest, fastest, most efficient theory to evict is through nonpayment of rent.