Set Aside a Default Judgment: California Unlawful Detainer

To set aside a default judgment in a California unlawful detainer case, you file a motion in the same court that entered the judgment, asking the judge to vacate it under one of four provisions of the Code of Civil Procedure. Which provision fits depends on why you missed the deadline to answer the eviction complaint. In every case, speed matters: a landlord with a default judgment can obtain a writ of possession and have the sheriff post a five-day notice to vacate almost immediately, so the motion often has to be filed and paired with emergency relief before the lockout date arrives.

The Four Grounds for Vacating the Judgment

California gives tenants four distinct statutory routes. You choose the one that matches your facts.

Mistake, Inadvertence, Surprise, or Excusable Neglect

Under Code of Civil Procedure Section 473(b), the court has discretion to vacate a default judgment when the missed deadline was caused by your mistake, surprise, or excusable neglect.¹ The test is whether a reasonably careful person could have made the same error in the same situation. A sudden hospitalization, a serious family emergency, or being unexpectedly away when the papers arrived are the kinds of facts courts tend to accept. Forgetting, being busy, or not understanding the deadline usually is not enough.

With discretionary relief, you also have to show a valid defense to the eviction itself. A court will not reopen a case only to reach the same result. Typical defenses include proof that rent was paid, a defective three-day or thirty-day notice, retaliation, or habitability problems the landlord failed to address. You do not have to prove you would win at trial, only that a defense exists that could change the outcome.

Attorney Fault

Section 473(b) also contains a mandatory relief provision. If an attorney’s mistake caused the default and the attorney files a sworn statement accepting responsibility, the court must vacate the judgment.¹ The only exception is a finding that the attorney’s error did not actually cause the default. Unlike discretionary relief, mandatory relief does not require proof of a meritorious defense.

You Never Received Actual Notice of the Lawsuit

Section 473.5 applies when service did not result in actual notice in time for you to respond. This comes up more often in evictions than people expect. Papers left with a roommate who never handed them over, substituted service completed at an address you had already left, and posting on a door you no longer used all fit here.²

You file an affidavit swearing your lack of notice was not caused by avoiding service or inexcusable carelessness. One caveat: Section 473.5 currently contains a sunset clause repealing it on January 1, 2027, though similar provisions have been extended in the past.

The Judgment Is Void

Section 473(d) lets the court set aside any judgment that is void, meaning the court never had authority to enter it.¹ The most common example is defective service of process. If the landlord’s process server never served the summons in a legally valid way, the court had no jurisdiction over you and the entire judgment falls. There is no statutory time limit for challenging a void judgment, though courts still expect you to move promptly after you discover the defect.

Filing Deadlines

Each ground has its own clock, and the clocks start from different events.

Discretionary relief under Section 473(b): within a reasonable time, and no later than six months after entry of judgment. “Reasonable time” does real work in that sentence, and a court can deny a motion filed at month five if you cannot explain the delay.¹
Mandatory attorney-fault relief under Section 473(b): six months from entry of judgment.¹
Lack of actual notice under Section 473.5: the earlier of two years after entry of judgment, or 180 days after you are served with written notice that the judgment was entered.²
Void judgment under Section 473(d): no statutory deadline, but promptness still matters.

Do not let those outer limits mislead you. Unlawful detainer cases move at a pace that makes most other civil litigation look slow. If a writ of possession has already issued and the lockout is days off, a motion filed months after the judgment is nearly useless unless you have also obtained emergency relief. Many courts in UD cases expect the motion within 30 to 60 days of the tenant learning about the default.

What Goes in the Motion

The filing has three core pieces: a Notice of Motion, a supporting declaration, and a proposed Answer to the eviction complaint on the Judicial Council’s standard form, Answer—Unlawful Detainer (UD-105).³

The declaration is where the motion is won or lost. It is your sworn account, in specific factual detail, of why you missed the response deadline. Vague statements like “I didn’t know about the case” without an explanation of how that happened do not persuade judges. Hospitalized? Attach medical records. Out of the country? Include travel documents. Never received the papers? Explain where you were living, who was at the address that was served, and how you eventually found out about the judgment.

The declaration also has to lay out your defense to the eviction. You are not putting on your whole case, but the judge needs enough facts to see that reopening the matter would not be futile. If rent was paid, attach receipts or bank statements. If the notice was defective, describe exactly what was wrong with it.

File the papers with the clerk’s office at the court where the UD case was filed. The filing fee for a noticed motion in California Superior Court is $60 as of 2026.⁴ If you cannot afford it, submit a Request to Waive Court Fees (form FW-001) at the same time.⁵ After filing, have someone at least 18 and not a party to the case serve the landlord or their attorney, then file the proof of service. The motion will not be heard without it.

Stopping the Lockout While the Motion Is Pending

Filing a motion to set aside does not stop the eviction. Without a separate court order, the landlord can proceed with the lockout even while your motion sits on the calendar. If the sheriff has already posted a five-day notice or a lockout date is close, you need to file an ex parte application for a stay of execution alongside the motion.

An ex parte application is an emergency request, heard on short notice, usually the next court day. You give the landlord’s attorney (or the landlord directly if unrepresented) notice by phone no later than 10:00 a.m. on the court day before filing. You then file the ex parte application together with your motion to set aside and a request to shorten time for the hearing. The court may also require you to deposit rent for each additional day you are asking to remain in the property.⁶

Start preparing the ex parte papers at least 48 hours before the scheduled lockout, and earlier if you can. Rushing the paperwork the night before a lockout is where tenants make the mistakes that sink the underlying motion.

At the Hearing

The judge reads your declaration, considers any opposition the landlord filed, and hears argument from both sides. Judges in unlawful detainer cases tend to focus on three questions: whether the reason for the missed deadline is legitimate, whether you have a real defense to the eviction, and whether you acted promptly once you learned about the default.

If the motion is granted, the default judgment is wiped out, your proposed Answer is filed, and the case restarts. UD trials are typically set within 20 days, so a resolution still comes quickly. If the motion is denied, the default judgment stands and the landlord can move forward with enforcement.

If the Motion Is Denied

A denial is appealable. You generally have 60 days from the date of service of notice of entry of the order to file a notice of appeal, or 180 days from entry if no notice is served.⁷ UD appeals are expedited but still take months, and without a stay from the appellate court the eviction can proceed during that time.

The four statutory grounds operate independently. A tenant whose Section 473(b) motion failed on excusable-neglect grounds might later discover that service itself was defective, opening the door to a Section 473.5 or 473(d) motion.

Why It Still Matters After You’ve Moved Out

The three major credit bureaus stopped reporting eviction judgments on standard credit reports several years ago because court records often lack the identifying information needed for accurate matching. Unpaid rent from the judgment can still hit your credit if it is sent to collections, and that collection account can appear for seven years from the date of the original missed payment.

Tenant screening reports are a separate system. Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, consumer reporting agencies may include eviction records for up to seven years from the date of the judgment.⁸ In practice, many screening companies use the full window. Vacating the default judgment removes it from the court record, which is the most effective way to clean up your tenant screening profile. A dismissal or a judgment in your favor after trial reads very differently to a future landlord than a default, even one you later paid off.

1
California Legislative Information. California Code of Civil Procedure CCP 473
2
California Legislative Information. California Code of Civil Procedure Section 473.5
3
California Courts. Answer – Unlawful Detainer (UD-105)
4
Judicial Council of California. Statewide Civil Fee Schedule Effective January 1, 2026
5
California Courts. Ask for a Fee Waiver
6
Superior Court of California, County of Humboldt. Ex Parte Stay of Execution Unlawful Detainer
7
Court of Appeal, Fourth Appellate District. Chapter 1 – Can You Appeal?
8
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 U.S. Code 1681c – Requirements Relating to Information Contained in Consumer Reports