Fifteen Day Pay or Quit Notice?

Question

Is it legal to actually send these 15-day Pay Rent or Quit notices? Obviously the tenant can just send back the declaration, and thats the end of it. But what if the tenants just ignores everything? It seems that technically this can go through the court system? Or will the courts just block it anyways?

Kyle J. · Answer

@Tammy Mason  It's not only legal to send out the 15-day notices, with the passage of AB3088 (COVID-19 Tenant Relief Act), it's now required.  They have replaced the 3-day pay or quit notices that were previously required.

If you were to serve one, hopefully a tenant would pay up (since that is one of the options with a pay or quit).  However, if a tenant were to just ignore it, then you would proceed with eviction (unlawful detainer).  It only gets complicated if they happen to return a declaration claiming they are affected by COVID-19 and have an inability to pay.  If that were to happen, here's a flow chart to give you an idea of how the process might go:

It can be confusing though.  No question about.  With all these new laws, it's now more complicated than it's ever been for landlords in California.

I'd highly suggest joining the California Apartment Association to help you stay on top of these ever-changing laws (and for all the forms you'll need to serve).  Here's their main site for this new law: https://caanet.org/ab3088/

And then also, if you have a tenant you actually end up needing to evict while this new law is still in effect, it may be worthwhile to use the services of a landlord-tenant attorney.  Just because there are so many nuances and you want to make sure you follow everything to a T so you don't get to the end and realize you missed a step or a form and have to start all over.

Best of luck to you.

Tammy Mason · Answer

@Kyle J. Thank you for that flow chart. I always feel its a bit of a hassle once it goes to court. But you were right about laws governing CA unlike the rest of States. I will be waiting for the tenant's response within this week.

Sarah Brown · Answer

Contact an attorney in your state.  CA has different rules right now than the rest of the country (shocker, I know).