How long eviction takes california

If the violation is based on illegal activity or other violations that aren't easily remedied, then the notice is an order for the tenant to leave the unit within three days.

If you are evicting a tenant from a month-to-month lease, you will need to give the tenant a day notice to move out. If the tenant has lived in the unit for more than one year, the notice must be extended to 60 days. In government-subsidized housing, the notice must be 90 days. Landlords do not have to give a day notice if the tenant is creating a legal nuisance by engaging in criminal activity or endangering neighbors.

You simply must provide a three-day notice to vacate the premises. The tenant has three options upon receipt of a three-day notice of the rent due. The tenant may pay the rent within the three-day window. Another option is that the tenant could move out within three days of receiving the three-day rent notice. The third option is not responding to the notice or moving out, which allows the landlord to move forward in the next step of eviction proceedings. Depending on the type of notice, you'll have to give the tenant a certain amount of time to remedy the grounds for eviction.

A notice based on failure to pay rent requires that the landlord give the tenant three days to correct the problem and pay rent. A day notice on a month-to-month or expired lease requires you to wait 30 days before you proceed with filing a lawsuit.

You'll need to submit the Unlawful Detainer Complaint and the Civil Case Cover Sheet to the courthouse in the county where the rental property exists. The forms must be factually accurate, so be meticulous when filling them out. The clerk at the courthouse will give you a summons and a stamped copy of the Unlawful Detainer Complaint. Be sure to get a copy of the Prejudgment Right of Possession form or print one.

This form is used when someone not listed on the rental agreement is living in the unit. You cannot legally evict a person living in a unit who is not named in the complaint, so you'll need to serve those unnamed occupants with a Prejudgment Right of Possession form and a copy of the complaint and summons.

This action will automatically make them defendants in the lawsuit. From the time you file an Unlawful Detainer Complaint form, the process of getting the tenant evicted typically takes about two months, although eviction can take longer.

As before, the complaint and summons must be properly served to the tenant. However, you cannot "nail and mail" a summons. After you serve the summons, file a proof of service with the court. Do not continue to reserve the tenant with notices, as this action will end the original case and open a new one, which will extend the waiting period and prolong the case.

The tenant has five business days to file a "response" to the court to challenge the lawsuit. Responses from a tenant might include a motion to attack the method of service, a motion to answer the complaints received, or a motion to attack the sufficiency of the notice received. If the tenant fails to respond after five business days, you can ask for a default judgment by filing another form with the court. The clerk of court will set a court date, and you will have to give the judge enough evidence to show that you properly went through the eviction process and the tenant defaulted.

You or the tenant may ask for a trial date, which is usually set within 10 to 20 days after the request. If you still need money, yes. Some local programs only allowed forward or back payments, but following new federal rules, the state can now pay up to 18 months of rent, including three months of forward rent, as well as utilities.

You will also have to give your landlord a signed declaration of COVID related financial distress within 15 business days of receiving a 3-day notice. The court will ask landlords, under penalty of perjury, whether they also applied for rental assistance. The landlord will only be allowed to move forward with the case if their application was denied. There are plenty of free legal services to help walk you through the court process, or even represent you.

Tenants Together, an advocacy organization, has a list of local resources, as does the state. Some cities are also staffing up to help tenants. The city has contracted with two law firms to provide defense for tenants facing illegal eviction, according to Brandi Snow, an attorney at Central California Legal Services.

Her organization can be contacted at To take advantage of the defenses afforded by the law, you still have to show up to court. The state has a guide for representing yourself. Many legal aid and housing organizations can help provide other resources to take with you to court.

There are also self-help centers to help tenants fill out forms, as well as free mediation programs, at some courthouses, according to Alexander Harden, a public policy advocate at Inner City Law Center in Los Angeles. A landlord must go to court and win an eviction lawsuit in order to evict a tenant. To start the eviction lawsuit, also called an unlawful detainer lawsuit, the landlord must file a summons and complaint with the superior court of the county or district in which the rental unit is located.

The court will set a date for a hearing before a judge, and the tenant will be notified of the upcoming lawsuit. If the landlord is successful at the hearing, the judge will give the landlord a writ of possession. This writ of possession gives the sheriff the authority to evict the tenant.

The landlord must use the sheriff to evict the tenant. It is unlawful for a landlord to attempt to evict a tenant without having a writ of possession and having the sheriff present. The landlord cannot force a tenant out of a rental unit through such means as changing the locks on the doors or shutting off the utilities to the rental unit.

If a landlord attempts to do this, the tenant can sue the landlord for damages. For more information on illegal eviction practices, see the Nolo article Illegal Eviction Procedures in California. The California court system also has useful information on evictions and the court process , as do the California charts in the State Landlord-Tenant Laws section of the Nolo website. The information provided on this site is not legal advice, does not constitute a lawyer referral service, and no attorney-client or confidential relationship is or will be formed by use of the site.

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Grow Your Legal Practice. Meet the Editors. Eviction Notices for Nonpayment of Rent in California. Under AB , landlords could begin filing certain eviction actions for failure to pay rent or other charges as of October 5, , but were prohibited, through January 31, , from evicting tenants for nonpayment of rent who have delivered to their landlord a declaration of COVIDrelated financial distress within days after being served with a notice to quit by the landlord. On September 2, the U.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention CDC issued a public health order to temporarily stop landlords from taking actions to evict tenants who provide a declaration that they are unable to pay rent and meet certain other requirements. The original order provided such protection to December 30, , but was extended several times since then, most recently through July 31, Under the order, a tenant who provides a declaration may not be evicted for failure to pay rent.

As of August 27, , the August 3 order no longer applies. The Judicial Council has approved several new unlawful detainer forms and revised two existing forms in response to state legislation put in place and amended several times since the start of the pandemic. The following forms have been adopted or revised since October 5, to implement the provisions of state law:. Read more about Eviction Notices. The text required is in the statute and on the forms linked below.