What is an Unlawful Detainer?
A landlord and a tenant enter into an agreement whereby the tenant is allowed to stay on the property owned by the landlord. The tenant is supposed to abide by the rules of the lease including, but not limited to, paying rent.
The usual notice served by a landlord upon a tenant is a 3-Day Notice to Pay or Quit. However, the right of the tenant to stay on the property is not unlimited and a landlord can always serve a 30 or 60 Day notice to terminate the right of the tenant to remain in the property.
On a 3-Day to Pay or Quit if the tenant fails to pay the amount due within the three (3) days after being served with the notice then the tenant’s right to stay on the property has terminated. From that point forward the tenant is unlawfully detaining the landlord from recovering the landlord’s property.
The landlord cannot forcefully evict the tenant. Either the parties reach a resolution on their own or the landlord file an unlawful detainer (a “UD”) in order to seek a judgment for the landlord to possess the property.
If you have any questions about the foregoing or are on one side or the other of a UD, please give me a call.
Please Note – The foregoing is general information. The service of notices, the reasons for the the notice and how to process the litigation are very technical areas. I urge you to contact an attorney or legal services for further information. Please do not rely on the foregoing information on whether you are proceeding correctly on an unlawful detainer. The foregoing is not intended to create an attorney-client relationship as you would need to engage me with a retainer agreement before I agree to act as your attorney.