Outline of the eviction process in California

California is the opposite of Texas. The court case is called an unlawful detainer and the statute is old and fast, but almost nothing about a California eviction is decided by that statute alone. Three layers sit on top of each other: the unlawful detainer procedure in the Code of Civil Procedure, the statewide just cause and rent cap rules in the Tenant Protection Act, and a local ordinance in many of the largest cities that overrides both.

An uncontested case runs roughly five to nine weeks. A contested one runs three to six months. The notice period is rarely what decides it. What decides it is whether you had the right to terminate the tenancy at all, and whether the paperwork proving that was correct before you served anything.

1. First question: does just cause apply?

Before drafting any notice, work out whether the Tenant Protection Act (AB 1482, codified at Civil Code §§ 1946.2 and 1947.12) covers the unit. If it does, you cannot end the tenancy without a statutory reason, and a notice that does not state one is void.

Under § 1946.2(a), just cause attaches once a tenant has continuously and lawfully occupied the unit for 12 months. Where an additional adult tenant was added to the lease before an existing tenant reached 24 months, protection attaches at whichever of these comes first: all of the tenants have occupied for 12 months or more, or any one tenant has occupied for 24 months or more. The test is disjunctive. A landlord who assumes that adding a roommate resets everyone to a 24-month clock is wrong as soon as the newest tenant passes 12 months, and a notice served on that mistaken assumption is void under § 1946.2(g). Both § 1946.2 and the rent cap in § 1947.12 are currently set to expire on January 1, 2030.

Common exemptions include:

• Single-family homes and condominiums, but only when the owner is not a real estate investment trust, corporation or corporate LLC, and the required written exemption notice has been given to the tenant. Miss that notice and the exemption is lost.
• Owner-occupied duplexes where the owner lives in one unit.
• New construction, units with a certificate of occupancy issued within the last 15 years. This is a rolling window, so a building exempt last year may not be exempt now.
• Deed-restricted affordable housing, dormitories, and units already subject to a stricter local rent control ordinance.

The exemption notice is the single most common failure point for California landlords who believe they are exempt. If you cannot produce the notice you gave the tenant, assume just cause applies.

2. The rent cap, and why it matters in a nonpayment case

Where AB 1482 applies, annual rent increases are capped at 5% plus the regional CPI, with a hard ceiling of 10%. The CPI component varies by region and resets every August 1, so check the current figure for the property’s county before noticing an increase.

This belongs in an eviction guide because a defective rent increase contaminates the case that follows. If the increase exceeded the cap, the excess is not lawfully owed, the amount stated in your three-day notice is wrong, and the notice fails. California notices must demand the correct amount; overstating it is fatal.

3. The notices

Under Code of Civil Procedure § 1161:

• Three-day notice to pay rent or quit for nonpayment. The three days exclude Saturdays, Sundays and judicial holidays, so in practice this is three court days, not three calendar days. The notice must state the precise amount of rent due and the name, telephone number and address of the person to whom it is to be paid. If payment may be made in person, it must also give the usual days and hours that person is available. If it may not, the notice must instead give an account number at a financial institution located within five miles of the property, or refer to an electronic funds transfer procedure the parties already set up. Rent demanded may not go back more than one year.
• Three-day notice to cure or quit for a curable breach of the lease.
• Three-day notice to quit, with no opportunity to cure, for waste, nuisance, unlawful use of the premises, or an unauthorised assignment or sublet.
• Thirty-day or sixty-day notice to terminate a month-to-month tenancy where just cause does not apply: 30 days where any tenant has occupied for less than a year, 60 days where a tenant has occupied for a year or more (Civil Code § 1946.1).

Notices may be served personally on the tenant, by substituted service on a person of suitable age at the residence or workplace with a copy mailed, or, only where no such person can be found, by posting in a conspicuous place and mailing (Code of Civil Procedure § 1162). Mailing does not add time to the notice period. The five-day extension for mailed documents in Code of Civil Procedure § 1013 does not apply to unlawful detainer notices; the Court of Appeal held the two schemes mutually exclusive in Losornio v. Motta (1998) 67 Cal.App.4th 110. Do not confuse this with § 1167(b), which gives the tenant five extra court days to respond to the summons when it was served by mail. That is a rule about the lawsuit, not the pre-suit notice. Keep the proof of service; it is attached to the complaint and it is the first thing a defence attorney attacks.

4. No-fault terminations after SB 567

SB 567 was effective January 1, 2024 and its changes to § 1946.2 became operative on April 1, 2024. It materially tightened the two no-fault grounds landlords use most. The section has been amended since, so read the current text rather than a 2024 summary.

Owner or relative move-in. The intended occupant must move in within 90 days of the tenant vacating and must live in the unit for at least 12 months. If they do not, the landlord faces restrictions on re-renting and exposure to penalties. The ground is available only to a natural person holding at least a 25 percent recorded ownership interest, to related co-owners, or to a natural person holding the equivalent beneficial interest through a living trust, partnership or LLC. A corporation cannot use it.

Substantial remodel. The termination notice must now describe the intended work, attach copies of the required permits, tell the tenant their right to reoccupy if the work does not start or is not completed, and explain how to register interest in returning. A notice that simply asserts a remodel is now insufficient.

Relocation assistance. A no-fault termination under § 1946.2 generally requires one month’s rent, regardless of the tenant’s income, either as a direct payment within 15 calendar days of serving the notice or as a written waiver of the final month’s rent, and the notice must tell the tenant which. There is one exception: where the termination follows a government or court order to vacate and the tenant is found to be at fault for the condition that triggered the order, no relocation assistance is owed. If the tenant takes the payment and then fails to vacate, the amount is recoverable as damages.

5. Filing the unlawful detainer

After the notice period expires, the complaint is filed in the superior court for the county where the property is located, with the notice and its proof of service attached as exhibits. The pleading has to allege the facts establishing the ground, and where just cause applies, the statutory reason.

The summons and complaint must be served by a registered process server, the sheriff, or any adult who is not a party. The landlord may not serve the papers personally.

6. The tenant’s response

Since 1 January 2025, AB 2347 gives the tenant 10 court days to respond after service, up from five. Court days exclude weekends and judicial holidays, so the practical window is roughly two calendar weeks.

If the summons was served by mail or through the Secretary of State’s address confidentiality program, the tenant gets five more court days (§ 1167(b)).

A separate 2025 law, AB 1384 (Stats. 2025, ch. 299), shortened the handling of demurrers and motions to strike. Under what is now Code of Civil Procedure § 1170(b) and (c), those are heard not less than five and not more than seven court days after the motion is filed, absent a stipulation or good cause, and opposition may be made orally at the hearing rather than in writing. The net effect for most landlords is a longer case, because the doubled answer period applies to every case while the streamlined motion practice only applies to some.

If no response is filed, the landlord requests a default judgment, which typically takes one to two weeks. If an answer is filed, the case is entitled to trial priority and is generally set within about 20 days.

New for 2026: the Social Security defense. AB 246 (Stats. 2025, ch. 337) added Civil Code § 1946.3. In a nonpayment case, a tenant whose income was lost because Social Security payments were interrupted by the action or inaction of the federal government may raise that as a defense, and the court must stay the case until 14 days after benefits are restored or six months after the stay, whichever comes first. Within 14 days of restoration the tenant must pay the arrears or enter an agreed payment plan. The section expires on January 20, 2029.

7. Trial and judgment

Unlawful detainer trials are usually short bench trials. The landlord proves the tenancy, the ground, the notice and its service, and the tenant’s failure to comply. Habitability is the defence raised most often, and a documented repair history is worth more at trial than anything else in the file.

8. The writ of possession and the lockout

On a judgment for possession the clerk issues a writ of possession, which goes to the levying officer, usually the sheriff. There is no separate notice to vacate. The officer serves or posts the writ itself, which must state that the occupants will be removed if the property is not vacated within five days of service (Code of Civil Procedure § 715.010(b)(2)). Those five days are not extended where the writ is served by mail (§ 715.020(c)). If the tenant has not left when the period expires, the officer returns, removes the occupants and restores possession to the landlord.

As in every state, the landlord may not do this themselves. Changing the locks, removing doors, or shutting off utilities before the sheriff acts converts a lawful eviction into an unlawful one and exposes the landlord to statutory damages.

9. Local ordinances override all of the above

Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose, Santa Monica and Berkeley, among others, maintain their own rent stabilisation and just cause ordinances. These commonly impose additional grounds requirements, higher relocation payments, registration or filing obligations with a local rent board, and notice language the state statute does not require.

Where a local ordinance applies, it controls, and compliance with state law alone will not save the case. Confirm the local rules before serving anything. This is the main reason a California landlord outside their home city hires counsel who practises in that city.

10. What actually goes wrong

• Assuming an exemption without the exemption notice. Single-family and condo owners lose this one constantly.
• Demanding the wrong amount in a three-day notice, usually by including late fees, utilities or rent barred by the one-year limit, or by including an increase that exceeded the cap.
• Counting the three days as calendar days. They are not.
• Adding time for mailing, or assuming a new roommate resets just cause to 24 months. Neither is the law, and the second produces a void notice.
• Serving a no-fault notice without the relocation payment or without stating it.
• A substantial remodel notice without the permits attached. Post-SB 567 this is now a defect on the face of the notice.
• Ignoring the local ordinance because the state rules were followed.

None of the above is legal advice, and California practice varies sharply between counties and between cities within a county. Given how much of a California case is decided before the complaint is filed, the cheapest point at which to involve a landlord-side attorney is when the notice is being drafted, not after it has been served.

Sources

• California Civil Code §§ 1946.1, 1946.2, 1946.3 and 1947.12 (Tenant Protection Act, AB 1482 (2019), as amended by SB 567 (2023), AB 1529 (Stats. 2025, ch. 203) and later legislation; AB 246, Stats. 2025, ch. 337).
• California Code of Civil Procedure §§ 1161, 1162, 1167, 1170 and 1170.5 (unlawful detainer notices, service, response and trial setting, as amended by AB 2347 (2024), AB 1384 (Stats. 2025, ch. 299) and later legislation), and §§ 715.010 and 715.020 (writ of possession).
• Losornio v. Motta (1998) 67 Cal.App.4th 110.
• Statutory text checked against the codes as in force on January 1, 2026.

This guide is general information about California procedure and is not legal advice. Local ordinances frequently add to or override the state rules described here. Confirm the current text before relying on any deadline.