How to Legally Evict Someone in California: Notices, Court Steps, and Costs

To evict someone in California, you need a legally recognized reason, a correctly written and properly served termination notice, a filed unlawful detainer lawsuit, a court judgment, and a sheriff-executed lockout. Skip or botch any step and the case gets dismissed, forcing you to start over. A straightforward, uncontested eviction usually takes five to eight weeks and runs $500 to $1,500; contested cases take longer and cost more.

You cannot change the locks, shut off utilities, or remove the tenant’s belongings on your own. Only the county sheriff can physically remove a tenant, and only after a judge has signed off.

Step 1: Confirm You Have a Legal Reason to Evict

Before anything else, figure out whether the tenancy is covered by the Tenant Protection Act of 2019 (AB 1482), which is in effect through January 1, 2030. The law requires “just cause” to end a tenancy once all tenants have lived in the unit for at least 12 months, or any one tenant has been there for 24 months.¹ Cities with their own rent control (Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, and others) may add stronger local protections on top.

Some properties are exempt from both just cause and the rent cap. Single-family homes and condos qualify if the owner is a natural person (not a corporation, REIT, or LLC with a corporate member) and has given the tenant written notice of the exemption. Housing with a certificate of occupancy issued within the past 15 years is exempt, as are owner-occupied duplexes where the owner lives in one of the two units.²

At-Fault Reasons

These are things the tenant did wrong: nonpayment of rent, violating a material lease term (unauthorized pets, prohibited alterations), creating a nuisance, criminal activity on the property, subletting without permission, refusing lawful entry, using the unit for an illegal purpose, or refusing to sign a renewal on substantially similar terms after the old lease expires.¹

No-Fault Reasons

These have nothing to do with tenant misconduct: the owner or an immediate family member (spouse, domestic partner, children, grandchildren, parents, or grandparents) moving in for at least 12 continuous months, pulling the unit off the rental market, a government order to vacate, or a substantial remodel that can’t be done with the tenant in place.¹

Every no-fault eviction triggers a relocation payment. You either pay the tenant one month’s rent or waive the final month. Skip this and the termination notice is invalid, which kills the entire eviction.³

Step 2: Serve the Correct Termination Notice

The notice depends on why you’re evicting and how long the tenant has been there. Picking the wrong one is one of the most common ways landlords lose eviction cases, and you can’t fix it midstream.

3-Day Notice to Pay Rent or Quit — for unpaid rent. Must state the exact amount of rent due and give the name, phone number, and address of the person who can accept payment.⁴
3-Day Notice to Cure or Quit — for correctable lease violations like an unauthorized pet. Tenant has three days to fix the problem or move.
3-Day Notice to Quit (unconditional) — for serious misconduct that can’t be corrected: nuisance, waste, or illegal activity.
30-Day Notice to Quit — ends a month-to-month tenancy where the tenant has rented for less than one year.
60-Day Notice to Quit — ends a month-to-month tenancy of one year or more.
90-Day Notice to Quit — required for tenants with government housing assistance such as Section 8.

If AB 1482 covers the tenancy, the notice also has to spell out the just cause reason and inform the tenant of their rights under the Tenant Protection Act, including rent cap protections.

What a 3-Day Pay-or-Quit Notice Can and Can’t Demand

The notice can only demand actual past-due rent. Adding late fees, utility charges, or cleaning fees will likely void the whole notice. Courts routinely toss cases where the landlord overstated the amount, even by a small margin. The statute requires the notice to state “the amount that is due” for rent, period.⁴ Pursue late fees in a separate civil action. You also cannot charge the tenant a fee for serving the notice.

Serving the Notice

California recognizes three service methods, used in order of preference:

Personal service — handing the notice directly to the tenant. Strongest and hardest to challenge.
Substituted service — if the tenant can’t be found, leaving the notice with a competent adult at the tenant’s home or workplace and mailing a second copy.
Post-and-mail service — last resort. Post the notice conspicuously on the premises and mail a copy.

Whoever serves the notice completes a Proof of Service recording the date, time, method, and location. Keep it. You’ll file it with the court later.

Counting the Notice Period

For 3-day notices, the day you serve doesn’t count. Day one is the next day, and weekends and court holidays are excluded.³ A notice served Wednesday before a holiday weekend can easily give the tenant a full week of calendar time. For 30-day and 60-day notices, the count runs in calendar days. The notice has to fully expire — tenant still in possession after the deadline — before you file suit.

Step 3: File the Unlawful Detainer Lawsuit

Once the notice expires and the tenant hasn’t complied or moved out, file the lawsuit in Superior Court in the county where the property sits. You need four Judicial Council forms:

SUM-130 — Summons – Unlawful Detainer-Eviction
UD-100 — Complaint – Unlawful Detainer
UD-101 — Plaintiff’s Mandatory Cover Sheet and Supplemental Allegations
CM-010 — Civil Case Cover Sheet

File these along with the expired notice and the Proof of Service. The filing fee depends on how much back rent you’re claiming: $240 for amounts up to $10,000, $385 for $10,000 to $35,000, and $435 for amounts over $35,000. A few counties add local surcharges, pushing the maximum to $450.⁵ If you can’t afford it, apply for a fee waiver.⁶

Serving the Summons and Complaint

After the clerk files your documents, formally serve the Summons and Complaint on the tenant. You cannot do this yourself. A registered process server or any neutral adult who is not a party must handle service, typically costing $30 to $200. The server completes a Proof of Service of Summons (form POS-010), which you file with the court. Without that filing, the court has no jurisdiction over the tenant.

Step 4: Get the Judgment

A tenant who was personally served has 10 court days to file a written response. Substituted or post-and-mail service extends that to 20 days.⁷

If no response arrives, ask the court clerk to enter the tenant’s default. You can then get a clerk’s judgment for possession only, or a court judgment that includes back rent and damages (which requires submitting evidence so the judge can set the dollar amount).⁸

If the tenant files an answer, the case heads to trial. File a Request to Set Case for Trial to get a date. Unlawful detainer cases get priority scheduling. At trial you have to prove every procedural step: valid just cause, an accurate and properly served notice, a fully expired notice period, and proper service of the Summons and Complaint. A single defect can get the case dismissed.

Expect tenant defenses. Common ones include habitability (the unit has serious repair issues you ignored), retaliation (the eviction is payback for a complaint), and discrimination. Tenants also raise accommodation requests for assistance animals, since the Fair Housing Act bars eviction over a “no pets” policy when the tenant has a disability-related need for the animal and has provided documentation from a licensed healthcare professional. California judges tend to scrutinize landlord compliance closely, so arrive prepared.

Step 5: Have the Sheriff Remove the Tenant

Winning does not let you change the locks. Only the county sheriff or marshal can physically remove the tenant.

After you receive the Judgment for Possession, request a Writ of Possession from the clerk. Take the Writ to the sheriff’s office with written instructions and the required fee, usually $150 to $250. The sheriff posts a notice on the property giving the tenant five days to leave voluntarily.⁹ Weekends and holidays don’t extend the five days. If the tenant is still there on day six, the sheriff returns, removes the occupants, and turns possession over to you.¹⁰

What to Do With Belongings Left Behind

After the lockout, you may find the tenant’s property still in the unit. You cannot throw it out. California requires written notice to the former tenant (and anyone else you reasonably believe owns the property) describing the items and giving a claim deadline. Hand-delivered notice gives the tenant at least 15 days; mailed notice gives at least 18 days from the date of mailing. Mail a copy to the vacated premises in case the tenant set up forwarding.¹¹

Store the property with reasonable care during the waiting period, either on-site or elsewhere. If nothing is claimed by the deadline, your options depend on value. Items you reasonably believe are worth less than $300 can be kept or disposed of however you choose. Anything worth more has to be sold at public auction, and you can deduct reasonable storage costs from the proceeds before returning the balance to the tenant.¹¹

What You Cannot Do

No Self-Help Lockouts

Changing the locks, removing doors or windows, shutting off utilities, or hauling the tenant’s belongings out to force them to leave is illegal under California Civil Code § 789.3, regardless of what the tenant owes or did. Statutory penalties run $100 per day the violation continues, on top of the tenant’s actual damages, and courts can award the tenant’s attorney’s fees. A lockout lasting a month can generate thousands in penalties alone, before the lawyer bills. The only legal removal path is the sheriff executing a Writ of Possession.

Watch the Retaliation Window

California presumes retaliation if you try to evict within 180 days of certain protected tenant activities: complaining to you about habitability, filing a complaint with a housing or building inspector, having an inspector cite the property, or participating in a tenant organization.¹² Serve a notice inside that window and the tenant can raise retaliation as a defense, with the burden on you to prove the eviction is unrelated. Lose that argument and you face actual damages plus punitive damages of $100 to $2,000 per retaliatory act. Threatening to report a tenant to immigration authorities also counts as prohibited retaliation. If a tenant recently complained about mold or a broken heater, document your eviction reason thoroughly before serving anything.

Active-Duty Military Tenants

The federal Servicemembers Civil Relief Act bars evicting a servicemember or their dependents from a primary residence without a court order, provided monthly rent falls below an annually adjusted threshold based on a 2003 figure of $2,400.¹³ When a covered servicemember doesn’t appear, you must file an affidavit regarding military status before any default judgment.¹⁴ If the court confirms active duty and that military service has materially affected the tenant’s ability to pay rent, the judge can stay the proceedings for at least 90 days or adjust the lease. Knowingly evicting a protected servicemember without following these steps is a federal misdemeanor carrying up to a year in prison.

What It Costs

A straightforward, uncontested eviction you handle yourself typically runs $500 to $1,500. A contested case with an attorney can run $3,000 to $10,000 or more. The main line items:

Court filing fee: $240 to $450, depending on back rent claimed and county.⁵
Process server: $30 to $200 for serving the Summons and Complaint.
Sheriff lockout fee: roughly $150 to $250 to execute the Writ, varying by county.
Lock change: $50 to $300 for a locksmith after the sheriff restores possession.
Attorney fees: $1,500 to $5,000 for a contested case. Some attorneys offer flat rates for uncontested work.
Relocation assistance: one month’s rent if you’re evicting for a no-fault reason under AB 1482.

Lost rent during the process is the cost most landlords underestimate. Even an uncontested eviction takes several weeks from the first notice to the day the sheriff hands you the keys.

1
California Legislative Information. California Civil Code 1946.2
2
California Legislative Information. California Civil Code 1947.12
3
California Courts. Types of Eviction Notices for Tenants
4
California Legislative Information. California Code of Civil Procedure 1161
5
California Courts. Statewide Civil Fee Schedule Effective January 1, 2026
6
California Courts. Fill Out Forms to Start an Eviction Case
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California Courts. What Happens If Your Tenant Files a Response
8
California Courts. UD-110 Judgment – Unlawful Detainer
9
Justia Law. California Code of Civil Procedure 715.010-715.050
10
California Courts. Eviction Cases in California
11
Justia Law. California Civil Code 1980-1991
12
California Legislative Information. California Civil Code 1942.5
13
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 50 USC 3951 – Evictions and Distress
14
United States Department of Justice. Financial and Housing Rights