Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in California

Re: Evictions

An eviction generally appears on your credit report in one of several forms. First, if it went to judgment against you, then there is a "public record" of the eviction which will come off your credit report 7 years after the date of the entry of judgment. If the eviction lawsuit was not filed against you, and improperly appears on your credit report, you can dispute it, and provide proof that it was not you, and it will be removed. Otherwise, there is no legal means of removing properly-reported items. Second, you may have not had a judgment entered against you, but have a collection agency trying to collect money you owe from a prior tenancy. Again, that stays on for seven years from the date that you first defaulted on the obligation. As with the foregoing, if it is legitimate, its not coming off your credit report for seven years.

There are firms and companies who claim to be able to get items removed from your credit report - even items you legitimately owe. My understanding is that they take advantage of the law by delivering hundreds of disputes over and over for each negative item on your credit report until the creditor screws up, and fails to respond timely, and it then comes off. But guess what - it can come back if it is legitimate. The real answer is if the eviction is legitimate, it's not coming off your credit report. Best bet is to make sure that if there is a money judgment, you pay it so that the judgment is satisfied, and it will lessen the impact of the eviction.

Finally, there are services that property management companies use that go way beyond a credit report, and they examine public record for even just the filing of an eviction lawsuit against you. To the best of my knowledge, there is no way to affect that report.

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