Legal Question in Bankruptcy in California

Re: bankruptcy

The process of evicting a tenant is pretty straight forward. Your time-line is pretty accurate, but let me back up and give you the whole picture. First, after being served with a notice, and your having failed to respond in a timely manner, the landlord files a complaint with the local court. That complaint should then be served on you and all other tenants in the apartment. From the date of service (with some exceptions) you have five days to file a response. When you fail to file a response, the landlord can go request entry of a default judgment. This is apparently where you are today. The Court then issues a Writ of Execution - a document delivering possession of the property back to the landlord. That has to be executed by (in Orange County) the sheriff's office. From the date that the sheriff delivers the writ, you generally have five days to leave before you will be physically evicted or removed. The sheriff will generally hand you, or post on your door notice of their intent to execute the writ. The five days start on the day that is posted or delivered. In Orange County (I can't speak for northern California), the sheriff will not execute Writs on the weekend, nor on Mondays, so if the five days lands on a Saturday, Sunday or Monday, you won't be locked out until that Tuesday.

If you file bankruptcy at any time prior to the lockout, you may be able to buy yourself some time, but again it depends upon the jurisdiction. I would contact a local bankruptcy attorney because delaying an eviction is not a valid reason to file. It sounds like you have other debts, and they are in collections, so you may qualify, but don't file solely to buy yourself more time in an apartment you are going to lose no matter what.

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Re: bankruptcy

8/12/08 I can answer all your questions, and advise you what to do about the default. David Burkenroad