Tenants in California will have twice as much time to respond to eviction notices and potentially avoid losing their homes under a bill signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom on Sept. 24.
The new law comes amid a statewide housing crisis, and after a surge in evictions followed the expiration of pandemic-era tenant protections. Tenant advocates say Assembly Bill 2347, which doubles the time to respond from 5 to 10 business days, will help renters who live in areas where legal help is scarce or face other life circumstances that make it hard to meet the current deadline.
Under California law, landlords who sue to evict tenants must serve them with a formal notice, called an unlawful detainer. If a tenant doesn’t respond in writing within five business days, they can lose the case by default. The complex and technical answer form asks tenants to outline any disagreement about the facts or choose from more than a dozen possible legal defenses, which often requires them to seek help from someone who understands housing law.
“If you think about folks who are living in legal aid deserts, it may take them the entire five days just to get in the door and get that help,” said Lorraine Lopez, a senior attorney with the Western Center on Law and Poverty, which sponsored the bill. “Or they’re going 40 or 50 miles to their nearest courthouse to try to get there before 5pm to file that paperwork.”
Language barriers, lack of transportation and work schedules can also slow tenants’ ability to respond, Lopez said. About 40% of California tenants lose their cases by default, researchers have estimated.
The state’s major landlord lobby, the California Apartment Association, didn’t formally oppose the new law, which takes effect Jan. 1. But some local landlord groups have objected that any delay in evictions allows more unpaid rent to pile up, a cost that property owners will pass on to the new tenant.
“Every time there is an elongation of the process it creates more loss to owners,” said Daniel Bornstein, a San Francisco real estate attorney who represents landlords. He said that while the five-day window might seem short, it’s part of a larger eviction process that can take months and often begins only after tenants are months behind on their rent.
That process, however, still unfolds much more quickly than a typical lawsuit. For example, defendants in other civil suits have 30 days to file a response. Tenants facing eviction are much less likely than their landlords to get help from an attorney—fewer than 5% nationwide have legal representation compared to more than 80% of landlords, the National Coalition for a Civil Right to Counsel estimates.
While the new law, carried by Democratic Assemblymember Ash Kalra of San Jose, gives tenants more time to respond to an eviction notice, it also shortens the timeframe for their lawyers to file certain motions alleging errors in a landlord’s complaint.
Nancy Wiles, who narrowly avoided an eviction judgment over an apartment she left in the Contra Costa County city of Oakley, said the new law could help tenants like her.
Wiles was already moving out of an apartment that she said was infested with mold when her landlord served her with an eviction notice. By the time she realized she had to respond, the five-day timeline had elapsed and a court had ruled that Wiles had to pay her landlord $7,000.
“It was very stressful,” said Wiles, a retired hairstylist on a fixed income. She later sought help from a pro bono attorney who got the case withdrawn.
Tenant activists have also attempted to create more breathing room during an earlier step of the eviction process, when landlords notify renters of a problem before they file a case. California law gives tenants three days to correct the issue—for example, by paying back rent or fixing damage to the property—before an eviction can be filed.
San Francisco passed an ordinance in 2022 giving tenants an extra 10 days to correct problems. But a state appeals court judge last week overturned the local measure, ruling that cities have to defer to the state on eviction procedures.
And some California cities, including Los Angeles, are considering following in San Francisco’s footsteps and guaranteeing a right to legal counsel for tenants facing eviction.
Copyright © 2024 Bay City News, Inc. This story was originally published by CalMatters at https://tinyurl.com/2hem5tar.
