This all depends on if your tenant decides to contest the matter or not. If the tenant does not respond or contest the matter, possession is granted by default. If the tenant does respond, then possession is granted by the judgment at trial.
How many days from the time the eviction case is filed all depends upon the courts and which California County you are in. California went through a series of court closures a few years ago and some counties basically went from fifteen filing courts to only five which has had a huge impact on the time frame of how long an eviction takes.
Generally, it can take between four to six weeks if the eviction is not contested by the tenant. If the tenant contests the eviction, it can then take between sixty and ninety days.
However, it must be understood that the notice process contributes to the total time the eviction process takes from the time of first serving the notice. In other words, if you serve a tenant a 60 Days Notice to Vacate the time frame for the Unlawful Detainer runs after that 60 days expires.
So how long the eviction process takes is dependent upon when the Unlawful Detainer is actually filed with the court – and depends upon the California County you are in. For example, one week the courts can be backlogged for two weeks. A couple weeks later it’s relatively open. We don’t have control over the court.
