Set forth below are some of the more common questions I get from landlords, tenants, and real estate buyers, sellers, and owners, and answers to these questions. Please contact me if you need additional information regarding these or any other real property legal issues.

Landlords

Q: My tenant hasn’t paid the rent. What should I do?

A: Serve the tenant with a Three-Day Notice to Pay Rent or Quit. Unless and until you do so, you cannot start an eviction case (called an “Unlawful Detainer” lawsuit) against the tenant. Since only the Sheriff can dispossess a tenant, and the Sheriff won’t carry out an eviction unless you get an Unlawful Detainer judgment against the tenant, you have to serve a Three-Day Notice to Pay Rent or Quit to start the eviction process.

Q: How long does it take to evict a tenant?

A: Like so many aspects of the law, it depends. Once you’ve served the proper eviction notice and the tenant has not complied, you need to prepare and file a lawsuit with the court. Then, you need to serve the lawsuit on the tenant. Depending on how the tenant is served, he has between five and fifteen days to answer.

If the tenant doesn’t file a response with the court, you can win the eviction case by default. In that case, depending on how quickly court clerks and Sheriff’s deputies process the paperwork a landlord must prepare and submit to get the Sheriff to remove the tenant, it can take between two weeks and a month to get the property back.

If the tenant contests the case, it can take six weeks to three months to get the property back, depending on the tactics the tenant adopts in fighting the case.

Tenants