Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in California

Your apartment manager is a jerk, and should know better than to threaten things that he cannot do. You may actually have some causes of action against the landlord for violations of the Fair Debt Collections Act - you will need to review the specific facts with an attorney, but they might be asserted as a defense to the money damages the landlord is going to ask for when they evict you through legal process.

When you receive a three day notice to pay or quit, you have just that; three days to pay the full amount of unpaid rent set forth in the notice, or you must "quit," meaning leave the apartment and surrender possession to the landlord. If you do that, they might sue you for the unpaid rent, but they cannot file an eviction lawsuit.

Now, if you cannot move or pay the rent by the third day, the landlord cannot lock you out, nor seize your property. The landlord must then file an Unlawful Detainer lawsuit, and serve you and all other tenants in the apartment with the Summons and Complaint. It usually takes a day or two for that to happen. Once you are "served" - and though there are very technical requirements for how the summons and complaint must be served, unless you want to hire an attorney, or learn law and motion procedure, you should consider that you were served when you receive copies of the documents, no matter how you received them. From that date, you have five (5) days in which to file an answer to the lawsuit. Some courts have assistance for tenants in unlawful detainers - how to respond to the lawsuit.

If you do not file an answer, the landlord can get a judgment against you very quickly - within a few days. If you do file an answer within those five days, you force him to set the matter for trial. Depending upon how busy the Courts are, it may be two weeks from the time you file your answer, to the date of the trial. Don't count on it taking that long, however. At the trial, unless you have some valid defense (which you do not provide sufficient facts here to address that question), you will lose, and the Court will issue a judgment that day for money damages, perhaps attorneys fees, cost and to give the landlord possession of the property. The Sheriff will then (within a day or so) post the property with a five day notice to get out. At the end of that five day notice, they will come physically remove you from the property. BE OUT before that day. If you leave any property, the landlord must then store and protect it, but to get it back, you will have to pay the landlord reasonable storage and handling costs. In short, be out well before the Sheriff comes.

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