Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in California

Time to File Answer Order to Serve Summons by Posting - Unlawful Detainer

I am having a dispute on a repair and deduct issue on a house i have rented for almost 6 years in Ventura County, Westlake Village CA.

I was out of town for 2 weeks and upon my return found the unlawful detainer on my doorstep not even taped to door and then today the mail man delivered the same for signature the unlawful detainer.

I want to file an answer and someone said I have 10 days to file an answer in Ventura County, California if in fact the plaintiff (landlord) filed with the court permission to post and mail.

I called the court to check and they did do this on June 5th even though I did not get the certified copy notice of this until last night June 8th 2006 and picked it up at the post office today June 9th.

My question is do I have 5 days to file my answer or as the paralegal said 10 days if they filed permission to post and mail.

I do not want to loose the cut off day to answer the summons. If I picked the summons up today what day do I need to have my answer filed by?

Please reply I am very confused.

Thank you

Lee

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Asked on 6/09/06, 10:03 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Philip Iadevaia Law Offices of Philip A. Iadevaia

Re: Time to File Answer Order to Serve Summons by Posting - Unlawful Detainer

You have five days to answer a UD complaint. The reason it sometimes works out to ten is a technicality based on the fact that being served with court papers by mail adds five days.

Your case is different, because posting and mailing a summons and complaint requires court approval. If the court approves it, then service is complete on the 10th day after mailing, so you would actually have 15 days to answer from the date of mailing. Good luck.

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Answered on 6/12/06, 3:26 pm


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