A lawful eviction in California is a court proceeding. It is not something a landlord can do with a locksmith, a shutoff valve, or a threat. Every step below has to happen, in order, before anyone can legally remove you from your home — and the only person who can physically put you out is a sheriff or marshal holding a court-issued writ.
Understanding the sequence matters for two reasons. First, each step comes with a deadline you cannot afford to miss. Second, landlords skip steps constantly, and a skipped step is often the strongest part of a tenant’s case.
Step 1: The Written Notice
Before filing anything in court, the landlord must serve a written notice that terminates or conditions your tenancy. Which notice depends on the reason:
- 3-Day Notice to Pay Rent or Quit — for unpaid rent. The three days exclude weekends and judicial holidays. The notice must state the amount due with reasonable accuracy and identify how and where to pay.
- 3-Day Notice to Perform Covenants or Quit — for a curable lease violation. You get the chance to fix the problem.
- 3-Day Notice to Quit — for serious, non-curable conduct such as substantial waste or nuisance.
- 30-Day or 60-Day Notice — to end a month-to-month tenancy. Thirty days if you have lived there under a year; sixty days if a year or more.
- 90-Day Notice — for most subsidized tenancies.
Defects in this first step defeat a surprising number of eviction cases. Overstated rent amounts, missing payment instructions, an incorrect notice period, improper service, and — where just cause applies — a failure to state the required cause are all common. Do not throw the notice away. It is evidence.
Just cause and relocation assistance
If your unit is covered by the Tenant Protection Act (AB 1482) and you have lived there 12 months or more, the landlord must state a just cause. At-fault causes include nonpayment, breach of a material lease term, and nuisance. No-fault causes include an owner or family member move-in, withdrawal of the property from the rental market, demolition or substantial remodel, and compliance with a government order.
For a no-fault termination, the landlord generally owes you relocation assistance equal to one month’s rent, or must waive your final month’s rent. In the City of Los Angeles, the Rent Stabilization Ordinance applies a stricter list of permitted reasons and its own, often much larger, relocation payments.
Step 2: The Unlawful Detainer Lawsuit
If you do not move out or cure within the notice period, the landlord’s next lawful move is to file an unlawful detainer action in Superior Court. An unlawful detainer is a summary proceeding — deliberately fast — but it is still a lawsuit, and the landlord bears the burden of proving a lawful basis for the eviction.
In Los Angeles County, unlawful detainer cases are handled through the LA Superior Court’s dedicated UD operation. Ventura County cases are filed in Ventura County Superior Court.
What a landlord cannot do at this stage: change the locks, remove your belongings, cut your utilities, or remove the doors or windows. Those acts violate Civil Code §789.3 regardless of how strong the landlord thinks the eviction case is, and they expose the landlord to your actual damages plus up to $100 per day and mandatory attorney’s fees.
Step 3: Service of the Summons and Complaint
You must be formally served. Personal service is the norm; substituted service and, with court permission, posting and mailing are alternatives, each with its own requirements.
Improper service is a genuine defense, not a technicality. If you were never properly served and a judgment was entered against you, an attorney may be able to have that judgment set aside.
Step 4: Your Written Response — 10 Days
This is the deadline that decides most eviction cases, and it is the one tenants most often get wrong.
You have 10 days, excluding Saturdays, Sundays, and judicial holidays, from the date of service to file a written response with the court. If you were served by mail, you get five additional court days.
Note: this deadline was five days for many years. It was extended to 10 days effective January 1, 2025. A great deal of the tenant guidance still circulating online — and more than a few notices prepared from old templates — has not caught up.
If you do not respond in time, the landlord can request a default judgment, and you can lose your home without a judge ever hearing whether the eviction was lawful. Responding is not optional and moving out is not required; you have the right to contest the case.
Common responses include a general denial with affirmative defenses, or a demurrer or motion to quash where the notice or service was defective. Defenses frequently available to tenants include:
- A defective or improperly served notice
- Breach of the warranty of habitability
- Retaliation — presumed under Civil Code §1942.5 if the landlord acted within 180 days of your complaint or exercise of a legal right
- Discrimination under FEHA or the federal Fair Housing Act
- Waiver, where the landlord accepted rent after serving the notice
- Failure to state a required just cause, or to pay required relocation assistance
Step 5: Trial
Unlawful detainer cases are set for trial quickly — a matter of weeks, not the year or more a typical civil case takes. Either side may request a jury.
Bring your documentation: the lease, proof of every rent payment, dated photographs of conditions, repair requests and the landlord’s responses, and every text and email. Cases are frequently won or lost on whether the tenant can prove a repair request was actually sent and when.
If the judge rules for the landlord, the court enters a judgment for possession. If the judge rules for you, you stay, and you may be entitled to your costs and — under many leases and statutes — your attorney’s fees.
Step 6: Writ of Possession and the Sheriff’s Lockout
A judgment alone does not put anyone on the street. The landlord must obtain a writ of possession from the court and deliver it to the sheriff or marshal. Law enforcement then posts a notice giving you a final period — typically five days — to vacate before they return to enforce it.
Only a sworn law enforcement officer holding that writ may remove you. Not the landlord, not a property manager, not a locksmith, not a contractor. If anyone else changes your locks or removes your property, that is an illegal lockout — a separate wrong that you can sue over even if the landlord would eventually have won the eviction.
Tenants can also ask the court for a stay of execution, which buys additional time to move in appropriate circumstances.
Where Landlords Go Wrong
In our experience representing tenants across Los Angeles and Ventura counties, the recurring failures are:
- Self-help. Skipping the whole process and simply locking the tenant out or shutting off the water.
- Defective notices. Wrong amount, wrong period, wrong service, missing just cause.
- Retaliation. Serving a notice weeks after a habitability complaint or a code enforcement call.
- Pretext. Filing a phony owner move-in or Ellis Act withdrawal to clear a rent-controlled building, then re-renting at market rate.
- Ignoring relocation obligations on no-fault terminations.
Each of these can be a defense to the eviction — and several are independent claims worth pursuing on their own.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long does an eviction take in California?
If the tenant responds and the case goes to trial, roughly one to three months from the filing of the unlawful detainer, though crowded courts and motions can extend it. If the tenant does not respond, a default judgment and lockout can happen in a matter of weeks.
Can my landlord evict me without going to court?
No. Any removal that does not end with a sheriff serving a court-issued writ of possession is unlawful. Changing locks, removing doors or windows, taking your belongings, or shutting off utilities to force you out violates Civil Code §789.3 and exposes the landlord to actual damages, up to $100 per day, and attorney’s fees.
What happens if I miss the 10-day deadline to respond?
The landlord can obtain a default judgment for possession without the merits of the eviction ever being heard. In some circumstances a default can be set aside — for example where service was improper or you were prevented from responding — but it requires prompt action and a motion to the court.
Does an eviction filing go on my record?
Unlawful detainer court records are masked for 60 days after filing and become public only if the landlord prevails within that window. If you win, or the case is dismissed or resolved, the record generally stays shielded from tenant screening companies.
Get Advice Before the Deadline, Not After
Almost every remedy in an eviction case is time-sensitive, and the most valuable thing a tenant can do is talk to a lawyer while the notice is still fresh and the response window is still open. If you have received a notice or been served with an unlawful detainer, contact Cohen, Cohen & Cohen for a free consultation.
This article is general information about California law, not legal advice, and does not create an attorney-client relationship. Deadlines and local ordinances change; consult an attorney about your specific situation.
