SB 567 — what it actually changed
SB 567 went live April 1, 2024. It didn't replace AB 1482's just-cause framework. It bolted teeth onto it.
Before April 2024, "good faith" in an owner move-in was something tenant attorneys argued about for months. "Substantial remodel" was loose enough that some landlords used it to clear long-term tenants for cosmetic work. SB 567 turned both into hard statutory tests with a $10,000-per-tenant penalty for getting it wrong.
- Owner move-in: qualifying person must occupy within 90 days of the tenant vacating and stay 12 months. Miss either deadline → actual damages or $10,000 per tenant, whichever is greater.
- Substantial remodel: requires a real building permit and work that genuinely cannot be done with the unit occupied. Paint and flooring don't qualify.
- Relocation: one month's rent minimum, tendered at or before notice service. Not after, not at move-out.
- Penalty floor: the $10,000 is per tenant, so a two-tenant lease is $20,000 minimum before fees.
The just-cause framework, in plain terms
On AB 1482-covered units, the 12-month mark is the line. Under twelve months: standard 30- or 60-day notice rules, no statutory reason required. At twelve months or more: a statutory just cause is mandatory, and skipping it makes the termination unenforceable.
The statutory causes split two ways. At-fault — the tenant did something wrong. No-fault — they didn't, but the landlord has a defined legal reason. The two halves carry very different notice rules, very different relocation obligations, and very different risk profiles when a plaintiff's attorney looks at them.
At-Fault Just Causes
- Failure to pay rent
- Breach of a material lease term
- Maintaining a nuisance
- Committing waste (damaging property)
- Criminal activity on the premises
- Unauthorized subletting or assignment
- Refusing to execute a new lease with equivalent terms
- Using the unit for an unlicensed care facility
- Employee tenants whose employment has been terminated
- Failure to vacate after lease expiration (holdover)
No-Fault Just Causes
- Owner, spouse, child, parent, grandparent, grandchild, or domestic partner move-in
- Substantial remodel requiring building permits
- Withdrawal of the property from the rental market (Ellis Act)
- Government order requiring the unit to be vacated
- Sale of a single-family home to a buyer who will occupy it (some circumstances)
Owner move-in — where SB 567 hits hardest
OMI is the single most-litigated no-fault category in California. Under the pre-SB 567 framework an owner could thread the eligibility test loosely. As of April 2024 the test is hard, the deadlines are exact, and the penalty is automatic.
Who qualifies as the "owner"
Civil Code §1946.2 limits OMI to six categories of person, each of whom must intend the unit as their primary residence:
- The property owner
- Spouse or registered domestic partner
- Children or stepchildren
- Parents or stepparents
- Grandchildren
- Grandparents
The five requirements, all mandatory
- Primary residence intent. Not a vacation place, not a part-year flip, not an Airbnb workaround.
- 90 days to occupy after the tenant vacates. Hard deadline. No grace period.
- 12 consecutive months of primary occupancy once moved in.
- Right of return. If the unit gets re-rented within 12 months of the OMI, it has to be offered to the displaced tenant first, at the prior rent or lower.
- Relocation paid up front. One month's rent minimum, tendered at or before the notice is served.
Substantial remodel — the permit test
Substantial remodel used to be the back door. A landlord wanted a unit back, declared "remodel," painted three walls, and called it done. SB 567 closed that. The work now has to be real, permitted, and incompatible with occupancy.
What actually qualifies
- Structural or safety scope. Permit-required structural or system work. Cosmetic refresh doesn't count.
- Permit in hand. Valid building permit issued, or a completed application filed, before the notice goes out.
- Incompatible with occupancy. The work has to be of a kind that genuinely can't be done with the tenant in place. Courts read this factually, not as a label.
- Good-faith execution. If the work is abandoned, delayed, or never starts, the same SB 567 penalty rules apply as for a failed OMI.
- Paint, flooring, carpet, drywall patching
- Appliance swap, cabinet refacing, countertop replacement
- Landscaping or exterior work that doesn't touch the unit
- HVAC replacement that can be done while occupied
- Anything that doesn't require a permit
- Any work whose obvious purpose is "increase the rent"
Relocation, same as OMI
One month's rent minimum, paid at or before service of the notice. Same statutory floor, same local-ordinance stacking, same consequence for late payment: a defective notice and grounds for the tenant to ignore it.
Relocation — the timing matters more than the amount
Relocation assistance is the cash payment a landlord owes a no-fault tenant under AB 1482. The state amount is one month's rent. The local amount can be much higher. The single trap that catches landlords is the timing.
State floor
One month's rent at the current rate, tendered at or before service of the notice. Not the day after. Not "I'll cut a check when they move out." Paid before the notice hits, or simultaneous with it.
What local ordinances stack on top
- Santa Ana RSO: tenure-based escalator — 2 months' rent for 1–3 year tenancies, 3 months for 3–5 years, more for longer. Additional uplift for seniors, disabled tenants, and households with minor children.
- LA City RSO: income- and tenure-tiered. Low-income, long-tenure tenants displaced under the LA RSO can hit 6+ months' rent. Separate LAHD filing required in some categories.
- West Hollywood: the high end of the state. For long-tenure cases the relocation payment can approach a full year of rent.
The notices, by category
Wrong notice type, wrong length, wrong dollar amount — any one of those is a defective notice and the court will dismiss the UD. You start over. Get this part right or none of the rest matters.
3-day notices (at-fault)
- 3-Day to Pay or Quit. Unpaid rent. Must state exact amount owed, the period covered, payment address, and accepted hours. A one-dollar mistake on the amount can void the notice.
- 3-Day to Cure or Quit. Fixable lease violation — unauthorized pet, unauthorized occupant, parking. Has to describe the violation specifically and what cure looks like.
- 3-Day Unconditional Quit. Incurable violations only — criminal activity, severe nuisance, material damage, sub-subletting. No cure option.
30 and 60 day notices (no-fault)
- 30-Day Notice — tenant in place under 12 months.
- 60-Day Notice — tenant in place 12 months or more.
Counting the days
The count starts the day after service. A 3-day notice served Monday runs Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday; the earliest action date is end-of-day Thursday. Mailed service adds days per CCP §1013. When the math is close, give an extra day — courts read this strictly, and an extra day costs you nothing.
The unlawful detainer process
If the tenant doesn't move out by the end of the notice period, the only legal path to possession is a UD lawsuit. Self-help — changing the locks, hauling belongings to the curb, killing the utilities — is illegal in California and exposes the landlord to triple damages plus attorney's fees. There are no exceptions.
Serve the right notice
Right type, right length, right dollar figures, right grounds. A defect here ends the case before it starts. Get a UD attorney to read the notice if there's any ambiguity at all.
Wait out the clock
Full statutory period from the day after service. Mailed service adds CCP §1013 days. Don't file the UD on the last day — file the day after, when there's no daylight argument.
File the UD complaint
Filed in the Superior Court for the county where the property sits — OC Superior Court for our portfolio. Filing fee varies by amount in controversy and resets on the court's fee schedule — pull the current number before filing. Notice and proof of service attached.
Serve the summons
Process server or sheriff — not the landlord personally. Service starts the tenant's response clock.
Default or response
Under AB 2347 (effective January 1, 2025) the tenant has 10 court days to respond, not the old 5. If nothing comes back, request default judgment — typically wraps in another 1–2 weeks. If a response lands, the case sets for trial within roughly 20 days for UD priority.
Trial and judgment
UD trials are bench trials, usually under an hour for clean cases. Burden's on the landlord: notice served correctly, period expired, just cause if applicable. Judgment for possession produces a Writ of Possession.
Writ and lockout
Writ goes to the sheriff. Sheriff posts a 5-day notice. If the tenant hasn't moved by then, the sheriff physically restores possession. OC scheduling typically adds 1–3 weeks after the writ depending on caseload.
Where COVID-era protections stand in 2026
The statewide COVID framework — AB 3088 and the extensions that followed — fully expired July 1, 2023. There is no active statewide COVID moratorium or rent-deferral protection in 2026.
Local programs lingered longer in a few cities. The remnants worth checking on:
- LA City — eviction moratorium ended January 2023; the just-cause phase-in for rent-related grounds wrapped during 2024.
- LA County unincorporated — income-impacted protections expired March 2023.
- Smaller jurisdictions — a few held longer programs into 2024. Check the city directly before relying on the assumption that everything has wound down.
Retaliation — the 180-day trap
Civil Code §1942.5 is one of the strongest anti-retaliation statutes in the country. A landlord who serves a termination notice, raises rent, or cuts a service in response to a tenant's exercise of a legal right is on the wrong side of the law, and §1942.5 builds in a presumption that does most of the tenant's case for them.
What counts as a protected activity
Inside the 180-day window after any of the following, an adverse landlord action is presumed retaliatory:
- Code-enforcement or health-department complaint about the unit
- Written repair request to the landlord
- Tenant organization or union activity
- Exercising any tenant right under California law
- Reporting the landlord's conduct to law enforcement
- Filing or testifying in any proceeding against the landlord
What a tenant can recover
- Actual damages — moving costs, rent differential, emotional distress
- Punitive damages on malice, oppression, or fraud
- Attorney's fees (mandatory under §1942.5)
- Dismissal of the UD and continued possession
How we run an eviction at NGC
Eviction is the single highest-risk legal event in residential property management. SB 567 plus an active OC plaintiff's bar means a procedural shortcut can turn a clean termination into a multi-five-figure tenant judgment. Our approach is boring on purpose: every step coordinated with an attorney, every step documented.
- Pre-notice attorney review on every covered-unit termination. No assumption that the standard form is the right form for this case.
- Notice drafting to exact statutory requirements — 3-day dollar amounts to the penny, cure language specific to the violation, delivery method picked for the best proof-of-service record.
- Relocation logistics on no-fault grounds — calculate the right amount including any local ordinance uplift, cut the check, get a signed receipt at or before service.
- OMI compliance tracking — 90-day occupancy deadline calendared, 12-month occupancy check-ins documented, utility records pulled to support good-faith occupancy if litigation ever lands.
- UD attorney network for filings and any contested trial. The wrong UD attorney loses a clean case; the right one wins a hard one.
Free eviction case evaluation →
Common questions, direct answers
What is just-cause eviction in California?
On AB 1482-covered units, after a tenant has been in place 12 months (24 on multi-tenant leases where one occupant crosses the line), the landlord needs a statutory reason — at-fault or no-fault — to terminate. The two categories carry different notice, relocation, and penalty rules, and skipping the just-cause requirement makes the termination unenforceable.
What does SB 567 require for an owner move-in?
Five things, all mandatory as of April 1, 2024: primary-residence intent by a qualifying relative, occupancy within 90 days of the tenant vacating, at least 12 consecutive months of occupancy, right of return if re-rented inside that 12 months, and one month's rent in relocation paid at or before service. Miss any one and the tenant collects actual damages or $10,000 per tenant, whichever is greater, plus fees.
3-day, 30-day, 60-day — which one when?
3-day Pay or Quit for unpaid rent. 3-day Cure or Quit for fixable lease violations. 3-day Unconditional Quit for criminal activity or other incurable conduct. 30-day for no-fault terminations under 12 months of tenancy. 60-day for no-fault at 12+ months. On AB 1482-covered units the 30 and 60 day notices also need a stated just cause and a paid relocation when the cause is no-fault.
How long does a California eviction take in 2026?
Uncontested in OC: 5 to 9 weeks from notice to sheriff lockout. Contested: 3 to 6 months, longer if there's a habitability counterclaim or legal-aid representation. AB 2347 extended the tenant's response window from 5 court days to 10 effective January 1, 2025, which added roughly a week to even the cleanest cases.
When is relocation assistance required?
Every no-fault just-cause termination under AB 1482 — OMI, substantial remodel, Ellis Act, government-ordered vacancy. State floor is one month's rent. Local ordinances stack on top: Santa Ana's escalates by tenure, LA City's by income and tenure (low-income long-tenure can hit 6+ months), West Hollywood's reaches a year on long tenancies. Payment goes out at or before notice service, not at move-out.
Can I evict in retaliation?
No, and the law gives the tenant a presumption that does most of the case-building for them. Adverse landlord action — termination notice, rent hike, service cut — within 180 days of a protected tenant activity is presumed retaliatory. The landlord then has to disprove it. Penalties include actual damages, punitives on bad faith, mandatory attorney's fees under §1942.5, and dismissal of the underlying termination.