Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in California

From the few facts you have given, here is what I am assuming happened. I'm going to go through this backwards (from today going back in time) because it will make slightly more sense.

The five day notice is (I assume - I cannot say for sure without reading it) the last notice the Sheriff's office serves before it executes a "Writ of Possesion." That Writ is an order from the Superior Court giving your landlord possession of the property. On Tuesday when the Sheriff executes that Writ, they are going to physically remove you (not your possessions) from the property, and change the locks. If you re-enter the property, you are subject to being arrested. How did the landlord get that Writ? First, in most cases he has to have served you with a notice terminating your tenancy or right of possession in the property. You don't mention in your post, but if you didn't pay rent, the landlord would generally serve you a three day notice to pay or quit. If you are current with rent, then your landlord may have terminated your tenancy with either a 30 or 60 day notice. In any event, in most cases, after that notice expires, the landlord will need to then file and serve you with an unlawful detainer lawsuit. As you say you had no prior notice, it sounds as if the landlord may not have served you with any of these documents, and has submitted false proofs of service to the Court. From the Court's perspective, since you didn't appear and dispute the case, they gave the landlord a judgment and he is now locking you out.

Your only hope is to hire an attorney to file an application seeking to set-aside the judgment entered, and to stay the eviction lock-out. This all needs to happen immediately as you have very little time to get this done. I would suggest a local attorney who can get started on this today or tomorrow. Next week will be too late, and once you are "dispossessed" of the property, getting back in is much harder. Your only other option is to move out by Tuesday and avoid the lockout.

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