California Eviction Process: Notice Periods, Timeline, and Costs

Code of Civil Procedure § 1161(2) requires a written 3-day notice to pay rent or quit, and the three days exclude Saturdays, Sundays, and other judicial holidays, counted from the day after service. The notice must state the exact amount of rent due, and only rent — adding late fees, utilities, pet fees, parking, or other charges voids it. It must also give the name, telephone number, and address of the person to whom rent is paid, and if payment can be made in person, the usual days and hours that person is available. Service follows CCP § 1162: personal delivery first, then substituted service on a person of suitable age at the residence or business plus a mailed copy, and post-and-mail only if neither of the first two can be accomplished.

For a curable breach of the lease, CCP § 1161(3) requires a 3-day notice to perform covenant or quit, and like the rent notice those three days exclude Saturdays, Sundays, and judicial holidays. The notice has to describe the violation specifically enough that the tenant knows exactly what to fix. Conduct that cannot be undone — nuisance, waste, unlawful use of the premises, or unauthorized subletting — goes under CCP § 1161(4) as a 3-day unconditional notice to quit with no cure right, and those three days are straight calendar days with no weekend exclusion; serving the wrong one of these two notices defeats the case.

Civil Code § 1946.1 requires 30 days' written notice to end a month-to-month tenancy if the tenant has occupied the unit less than one year, and 60 days if the tenant has been there a year or more. In practice most California landlords cannot use a no-cause notice at all: Civil Code § 1946.2 (AB 1482) requires just cause once a tenant has lived in the unit 12 months, so a no-cause termination only works on exempt property such as a single-family home owned by a natural person with the required statutory lease disclosure, an owner-occupied duplex, or a building with a certificate of occupancy issued in the last 15 years. Local just-cause ordinances in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley, Santa Monica, San Jose and elsewhere are stricter and often apply from day one.

Unlawful detainer cases are filed as limited civil actions in the Superior Court of the county where the property sits. Under the statewide civil fee schedule effective January 1, 2026 the first-appearance fee is $240 when the amount demanded is $10,000 or less and $385 when it is more than $10,000 up to $35,000, plus separate costs for service of process, the writ of possession, and the sheriff's lockout.

Since AB 2347 took effect January 1, 2025, CCP § 1167 gives a served tenant 10 court days — excluding weekends and judicial holidays — counted from the day after service to file an answer, demurrer, or motion to quash. That doubled the old 5-day deadline that had stood since 1971, so any timeline or template you find that says five days is out of date.

An uncontested nonpayment case realistically runs six to ten weeks: three court days on the notice, filing and service, ten court days for the tenant to answer, a default judgment, then a writ of possession and the sheriff's five-day notice to vacate. AB 2347 added roughly a week to every case, and a contested case, a tenant who files a demurrer or motion to quash, or a property in a local just-cause city can stretch it to three to six months or longer.

Civil Code § 789.3 flatly prohibits changing the locks, removing doors or windows, taking the tenant's belongings, or shutting off or interrupting utilities in order to force a tenant out, and it applies even when you have a valid ground to evict. A landlord who does it owes the tenant actual damages plus up to $100 for every day the violation continues, with a minimum of $250 per violation, plus the tenant's attorney's fees. Civil Code § 1940.2 adds a civil penalty of up to $2,000 per violation for using threats or menace to influence a tenant to vacate; the only lawful way to remove a tenant is a sheriff executing a writ of possession.

AB 2347, effective January 1, 2025, doubled the tenant's response window under CCP § 1167 from 5 days to 10 court days and reset the hearing schedule for demurrers and motions to strike under § 1170. SB 567, effective April 1, 2024, tightened AB 1482's no-fault grounds — an owner move-in now requires occupancy within 90 days and at least 12 months of residence, and getting it wrong exposes you to actual damages or $10,000 per tenant, whichever is greater, plus fees.

The single most common way California landlords lose is a defective 3-day notice — demanding late fees or utilities along with rent, overstating the amount, omitting where and how to pay, or counting the three days as calendar days instead of skipping weekends and judicial holidays. A defective notice is not fixable mid-case; you dismiss, serve a correct notice, and start over. An individual owner may self-represent in an unlawful detainer, but an LLC or corporation must appear through an attorney. Check your city's ordinance before you do anything: local just-cause rules, relocation payments, and requirements to file a copy of the notice with a rent board frequently control over the state baseline.

• Cal. Civ. Proc. Code § 1161
• Cal. Civ. Proc. Code § 1167
• Cal. Civ. Code § 1946.2