How to Evict a Tenant in California: The Process, Step by Step

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Front door of a rental unit, where a California eviction notice must be properly served

There is exactly one lawful way to remove a tenant in California, and it runs through a courtroom. The process is called unlawful detainer, it is governed by Code of Civil Procedure section 1161 and following, and no clause in your lease shortens it. Changing the locks, pulling the power, or moving someone’s belongings to the kerb is not a faster version of eviction — it is a separate offence with its own penalties.

Step One: Pick the Right Notice

Almost every failed eviction fails here. The notice has to match the reason, and a defective notice does not merely delay you — it usually means dismissal and starting over.

  • Three-day notice to pay rent or quit. For nonpayment. It must state the amount due, and it may only demand rent — not late fees, not utilities, not damages. Overstating the amount is the single most common reason these get thrown out.
  • Three-day notice to perform or quit. For a curable lease breach: an unauthorised pet, an unapproved occupant, a parking violation. The tenant gets the chance to fix it.
  • Three-day unconditional quit notice. For nuisance, waste, unlawful use of the premises, or unlawful subletting. No opportunity to cure, and correspondingly harder to prove.
  • Thirty or sixty-day termination. For ending a month-to-month tenancy where no breach has occurred. Civil Code section 1946.1 sets thirty days if the tenant has occupied for less than a year, sixty days if a year or more.

The three-day periods exclude weekends and judicial holidays. Serve on a Thursday and the clock does not run out on Sunday.

Twelve Months Changes the Question Entirely

Under the Tenant Protection Act, Civil Code section 1946.2, once a tenant has continuously occupied the unit for twelve months you can no longer end the tenancy simply because you would like it to end. You need just cause, and the statute defines the list.

At-fault causes: failure to pay rent, material breach after written notice and a chance to cure, nuisance, criminal activity on the premises or directed at the owner, using the unit for an unlawful purpose, refusing to sign a written renewal on similar terms, refusing lawful entry under Civil Code section 1954, and failing to leave after giving your own notice of intent to vacate.

No-fault causes: owner or qualifying relative moving in, withdrawal from the rental market, complying with a government order requiring the unit be vacated, and substantial remodel or demolition.

A no-fault termination carries a bill. You owe relocation assistance equal to one month’s rent, paid within fifteen calendar days of serving the notice, or waived in writing as the final month’s rent. Miss that and the notice is void. The termination notice must also state the ground you are relying on — a bare thirty-day notice on a protected tenancy is not enforceable.

Step Two: File, and Expect a Longer Wait Than You Have Heard

If the notice expires and the tenant is still there, you file an unlawful detainer complaint in the superior court for the county where the property sits, and have the summons and complaint served.

Here is the change most landlords have not caught up with. AB 2347, effective January 2025, extended the tenant’s time to answer from five days to ten court days. Court days, not calendar days — weekends and holidays are excluded, so ten court days is typically two full calendar weeks. Any timeline you find online written before 2025 understates this.

If the tenant does not answer, you request a default judgment. If they do answer, the case is set for trial, and unlawful detainer trials are statutorily preferred — but preferred is not instant, and a contested case with a demurrer or a motion to quash adds weeks.

Step Three: The Sheriff, Not You

Winning a judgment does not put you in possession. The court issues a writ of possession, you deliver it to the sheriff, and the sheriff posts a notice giving the tenant a further period to leave — commonly five days. Only the sheriff performs the lockout.

Realistically, an uncontested nonpayment case runs six to ten weeks from notice to keys. A contested case, or one in a busy urban court, can run several months.

What Self-Help Costs

Civil Code section 789.3 prohibits an owner from cutting utilities, changing locks, removing doors or windows, or seizing a tenant’s property to force them out. The statute provides actual damages plus a statutory penalty for each day the conduct continues, and a prevailing tenant recovers attorney’s fees.

The practical consequence is worse than the fine. A lockout converts your straightforward nonpayment case into a lawsuit where you are the defendant, and it hands the tenant leverage they did not have. Owners who try it almost always end up paying more and waiting longer than if they had filed.

Local Rules Sit on Top of All of This

State law is a floor. The City of Los Angeles, Santa Monica, West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Pasadena, Glendale, Inglewood, Culver City and others impose additional requirements — registration numbers that must appear on the notice, relocation schedules that vary with tenant age and household composition, and filing obligations with the local housing department. A notice that satisfies Civil Code 1946.2 and ignores the local ordinance is still defective.

If the unit is rent-stabilised, treat every deadline and form as ordinance-specific and verify with the city before serving anything.

When Not Evicting Is the Better Trade

Run the arithmetic before you file. Two to three months of lost rent, filing and service fees, attorney’s fees if the case is contested, turnover costs on a unit that has been occupied by someone who knew they were leaving — and no guaranteed date at the end of it.

A negotiated surrender frequently costs less and always ends on a date you agreed to. See how cash for keys works in California for the mechanics, and tenant buyout costs in Los Angeles for what the numbers look like there.

And if the reason you want the tenant out is that you want to be out of the rental business, you do not need a vacant unit to sell. Selling a house with tenants in it covers that route, and the selling a rental property page has the wider picture. If there is no lease at all, evicting a tenant with no lease deals with that specifically.

This is general information rather than legal advice, eviction procedure is unforgiving of small errors, and local ordinances change often. Talk to a California landlord-tenant attorney before serving any notice. If you would rather exit the property than litigate, Cash Home Buyers CA can make a no-obligation cash offer on a tenant-occupied property.