Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Re: tenants/renting

You should have hired a lawyer and evicted them 2 months or more ago. Would have cost you less than 2 months free rent.

Re: tenants/renting

No you cannot remove his belongings or change the lock or any other self-help. You need to go through the legal process and have an attorney bring an unlawful detainer action. Let me know if you are looking for an attorney to do this for you.

Best,

Daniel Bakondi, Esq.

IMPORTANT:

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Re: tenants/renting

Self-help evictions are not legal, and can result in the tenant suing you. Furthermore, the sheriff doesn't do evictions on the landlord's say-so; a court order (writ of possession) must be obtained and given to the sheriff after an unlawful detainer (UD) proceeding.

There may be self-help law books or landlording books that tell non-lawyer landlords how to prepare, file, serve and conduct unlawful detainer proceedings, but I think you'd be better off retaining a lawyer that specializes in unlawful detainer and eviction. The process is usually very quick and very routine, and the fees are reasonable in relation to the rental value of a vacant apartment or house.

Also, doing it wrong is risky; tenants are prone to sue their landlords for all kinds of supposed wrongs when evictions are done wrong.