Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Re: Eviction verson Pay or Quit

A 3-day notice to pay rent or quit is an eviction notice. If the tenant does not pay within 3 days, the landlord can file an unlawful detainer action. Since that takes time, your landlord may be interested in avoiding that cost by agreeing to let you stay through the weekend. The landlord is not legally permitted to evice you physically without a court order.

Re: Eviction verson Pay or Quit

In California the usual way to evict a tenant is through the unlawful detainer action, a court proceeding.

An unalwful detainer is initiated by giving the tenant notice. This can be either a three-day notice or a 30-day notice. The three-day notice is only appropriate when the tenant has breached the lease materially or done something else wrong, which seems to be the case here.

Therefore, you should regard the notice as a three-day notice. If you are not out in three days the landlord can then file in court and within a few more days get a court order unless you resist by filing an answer. Since your answer would be essentially groundless, you are likely to lose eventually; you can however buy a few more days at the cost of preparing and filing the answer and possibly being liable for greater damages.

My recommendation is to figure out how quickly you can realistically promise to vacate, so inform the landlord, and then stick to it.

You should also pay all rent for the pro-rated time you're in the place to avoid worse credit reporting than you already may have.