Evictions

If a tenant is approved for rental assistance money after an eviction case (unlawful detainer) is started, they can ask the court to stop the eviction process. If the tenant is approved for rental assistance, how do they ask to stop the eviction case?

Before a landlord can start an eviction case (unlawful detainer), they must both:

• Give their tenant a written Notice under Civil Code Section 1179.10 that has information about government rental assistance
• Apply for government rental assistance. If the tenant is eligible and money is available, California will pay up to 100% of the unpaid rent as far back as April 1, 2020.

Tenants may still be evicted for reasons such as not following the rental agreement, nuisance, committing a crime on the property, or if the owner has a justified reason for taking back the property.

State laws on eviction cases were amended in light of the COVID-19 pandemic to provide protections for residential tenants. The law provided protections for renters who were given an eviction notice because they were unable to pay their rent or other charges between March 1, 2020 through September 30, 2021, due to COVID-19-related financial distress. It also provided that, for that same period, any other evictions of residential tenants must be based on just cause. In addition, the state now has a rental assistance program in place to pay landlords the rent due during that period and beyond for tenants who qualify for the assistance.

As of October 1, 2021, a tenant may be evicted for any legal reason, including failure to pay rent.

Between October 1, 2021 and March 31, 2022: A landlord who seeks to evict a tenant for failure to pay rent or other financial obligations that came due between March 1, 2020 and March 31, 2022 on a tenancy that began before October 1, 2021, must apply for rental assistance before the court will issue a summons in their case.. Whether you are a tenant or a landlord, it is important to get help to understand your rights and responsibilities under these new laws and ordinances.

On June 28, 2021, the Governor signed a bill that extends the protections in AB 3088 and SB 91 through September 30, 2021 and includes some additional protections. The time in which landlords may not evict tenants for nonpayment of rent if those tenants have delivered to their landlord a declaration of COVID-19-related financial distress within 15 days of being served with a notice to quit was extended to September 30, 2021. For notices to quit based on rent due between September 1, 2020 and the new end date of the protections, September 30, 2021, tenants’ time to pay the required 25% of the total amount of rent due was extended to September 30, 2021. The provisions regarding the rental assistance program were expanded, to provide that for qualified tenants, 100% of the amounts due to the landlord would be paid.

New in this law also are provisions requiring plaintiffs to actively participate in the rental assistance program before obtaining an unlawful detainer judgment. As of October 1, 2021, in most cases seeking an eviction based on nonpayment of COVID-19 rental debt or of rental debt incurred between October 1, 2021 and March 30, 2022, a court may not issue a summons or enter a judgment until the landlord shows that they have attempted to obtain rental assistance under the state emergency rental assistance program and the application has been denied or the tenant has failed to complete their section.

On January 29, 2021, the Governor signed a bill that extends the protections in AB 3088 through June 30, 2021 and included some additional protections. Under this bill, landlords could not evict tenants for nonpayment of rent before June 30, 2021 if those tenants delivered to their landlord a declaration of COVID-19-related financial distress within 15 days of being served with a notice to quit. The time in which tenants would be required to pay 25% of the total amount of rent due after September 1, 2020 was also extended to June 30, 2021. Senate Bill 91 also established a new emergency rental assistance program to help renters who have been impacted by COVID-19, which would pay 80% of the amounts due to landlords of qualified tenants.

On August 31, 2020, California adopted legislation (AB 3088) to protect tenants and small landlords from the financial distress caused by COVID-19 pandemic effects. It includes the COVID-19 Tenants Relief Act of 2020, which provided tenant protections through January 31, 2021. Under AB 3088, landlords could begin filing certain eviction actions for failure to pay rent or other charges as of October 5, 2020, but were prohibited, through January 31, 2021, from evicting tenants for nonpayment of rent who have delivered to their landlord a declaration of COVID-19-related financial distress within 15-days after being served with a notice to quit by the landlord. And they could not evict them for that debt after that date if they paid 25% of any rent due from September 1, 2020 to January 31, 2021 by the last day of that period.

On September 2, 2020 the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a public health order to temporarily stop landlords from taking actions to evict tenants who provide a declaration that they are unable to pay rent and meet certain other requirements. The original order provided such protection to December 30, 2021, but was extended several times since then, most recently through July 31, 2021

On August 3, 2021, the CDC issued an order that protected tenants in counties experiencing “substantial or high levels of community transmission” of COVID-19. Under the order, a tenant who provides a declaration may not be evicted for failure to pay rent.

As of August 27, 2021, the August 3 order no longer applies. There is currently no CDC Eviction Moratorium in effect.

The Judicial Council has approved several new unlawful detainer forms and revised two existing forms in response to state legislation put in place and amended several times since the start of the pandemic. The following forms have been adopted or revised since October 5, 2020 to implement the provisions of state law:

• UD-101 Plaintiff’s Mandatory Cover Sheet and Supplemental Allegations – Unlawful Detainer (This mandatory form must be filed with any unlawful detainer complaint)
• UD-104 Cover Sheet for Declaration of COVID-19 Related Financial Distress
• UD-104(A) Attachment – Declaration of COVID-19 Related Financial Distress
• UD-105 Answer – Unlawful Detainer
• UD-120 Verification by Landlord Regarding Rental Assistance (a mandatory form that must be filed by the plaintiff with any request for default judgment in an unlawful detainer case)
• UD-125 Application to Prevent Forfeiture Due to COVID-19 Rental Debt a mandatory form that can be filed by a tenant who has an approved application for rental assistance and has been served with a Complaint for Unlawful Detainer that is based on unpaid rent or other financial obligations that came due between March 1, 2020 and March 31, 2022, under a tenancy that was initially established before October 1, 2021.)