How to Evict a Tenant in CA | Professional Property Management in Tehachapi

The most common reason that landlords evict tenants in California is nonpayment of rent. If you have people living in your home and they aren’t paying the rent, you need to take whatever action is necessary to get their payments caught up or to remove them from the property. The longer you wait to collect the rent; the more financial risk you face. California has a specific legal process that must be followed when you’re evicting a tenant. If you’re not sure of the proper requirements, get help from an attorney or a California City / Tehachapi property management company.

When rent has not been paid and the tenant has not responded to your attempts to reach them and talk about the late rent, you need to file a Three Day Notice. This sets the eviction process in motion and lets the tenants know that they have three days to catch up with the rent or vacate the property. This notice must include how much is due and how the tenant should pay. Hopefully, you will receive the rent within the three days. If not, you need to take the next step.

If the three days pass and you have not received the rent payment from your tenant, you’ll need to go to the court and file a Complaint with the clerk. Before anything else can happen, you’ll need to serve the tenants with the Complaint. Have a registered process server take care of this for you so that the service is documented and legally binding. The tenants will have the opportunity to respond to the Complaint, but many times they do not. In these cases, a default judgment is awarded to the landlord. You’ll need to file an Entry of Default and prepare to take back possession of your home. If the tenants do respond to the complaint, the judge will set a date for a court hearing and recommend mediation. At this point, you and the tenants can agree to a payment plan or decide which day the tenants will move out of the property.

Evictions can be costly and time consuming, especially if you’re not sure what you’re doing. If you need help evicting a tenant, please contact us at JBL Associates , where we serve the Tehachapi, Rosamond and California City communities as well as their surrounding areas.