RCFE Eviction Tips

RCFE Eviction Tips:

Residential Care Facility for the Elderly (RCFE) evictions seem to be on the rise, with more and more facilities issuing eviction notices and prepared to go to court to remove residents they don’t want to care for anymore. But residents have important protective rights! There are procedural requirements a facility must complete before evicting residents, namely an advance written notice telling the resident, in great detail, why he or she is being evicted. In addition, state regulations limit evictions to one of only five reasons. Here are some tips for disputing an RCFE’s reason for evicting a resident.  

Failure of resident to pay agreed upon rate for basic services within ten (10) days of due date.

Of the possible justifications for eviction, failure to pay is probably the least ambiguous – either you’ve paid your fee or not. However, if the resident has a disability that contributes to an inability to timely pay his or her fee, the resident can make a reasonable accommodation request to the licensee. A sample request can be found from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The request should specify that the resident needs assistance in managing funds and may even need case management to apply for available public benefits to pay for care (SSI, Assisted Living Waiver). If the facility fails to provide the requested accommodation, it may be barred from pursuing eviction.

Failure of resident to comply with state or local law after receiving notice of the alleged violation (e.g., drug use, assault, violation of probation, etc.).

In our experience, this is rarely cited as a reason for eviction but note the resident must receive a notice of the alleged violation before and in addition to a written discharge notice. Additionally, according to the RCFE Evaluator Manual, “the agency that has authority and jurisdiction over the applicable law,” not the RCFE, “determines if a violation has occurred.” The Manual also states the alleged violation “must be directly related to a living situation” in the RCFE. A vehicle code violation, for example, would likely not be relevant. The resident must also be given a reasonable opportunity to stop the violation before being evicted.

Failure of resident to follow facility policies that are in writing, are stated or referenced in the admission agreement and are for the purpose of making it possible for residents to live together.

This is commonly cited as a reason for eviction but facilities rarely address the latter requirement: that the violated rules must be necessary for residents to live together. Instead, eviction notices will often discuss a resident’s interactions with staff or noncompliance with rules that govern solely personal conduct.

If an eviction notice does allege a resident’s conduct has negatively impacted other residents’ quiet enjoyment of the facility, then the facility staff members were likely required by Welfare & Institutions Code Section 15630 to report any incidents to Community Care Licensing. If there are no reports, then there was no “resident-on-resident” abuse. A facility cannot claim that a resident abused, threatened, or harassed another resident on one hand but not report such alleged incidents on the other. 

Additionally, RCFEs should not be able to hide behind poor care. If a resident’s “behavior” is a predictable result of a facility’s failure to alleviate a resident’s natural distress, discomfort, or pain, it should not be able to blame and evict the resident. Residents should be ready to defend an eviction by demonstrating the facility’s failures, not the resident’s, are at issue.

One last tip: make sure the policy that is allegedly violated actually is in writing, part of the resident’s admission agreement, and signed or agreed to by the resident.

After formal assessment, the facility determines that it can no longer meet the resident’s changing care needs.

Facilities often can, but don’t want to, accommodate a resident’s changing care needs.  In these cases, the facility must be able to prove that it truly cannot meet the resident’s needs and that to do so, the facility would have to fundamentally alter the way it does business. The facility must base its determination on a resident reappraisal (22 Cal. Code Regs. Sec. 87463).

The facility changed its purpose (e.g., it is surrendering its license and will not operate as a Residential Care Facility for the Elderly (RCFE)).

When a facility is being sold, seek proof that the buyers are not going to operate a RCFE. It is possible the building will be sold and the residents moved out to clear the way for higher paying RCFE residents.

For more information about challenging an RCFE eviction, see CANHR’s fact sheet.