I Got an Eviction Notice in Berkeley
The ten reasons a Berkeley landlord is allowed to give, the five that are not enough, what your notice must say, and the real dates — plus free help to call.
A Berkeley landlord needs one of ten reasons to end a tenancy, and the notice has to say which — even where there is no rent ceiling. Pick the notice you were handed for your real dates, then read the reason on it against the ten the ordinance allows, and the five that are not enough on their own.
A notice is not an eviction
A rule is changing
Check the dates on your notice
Pick the notice you were given and enter the date you got it. Nothing you type is saved or sent — it stays in your browser.
3-day notice to pay rent or quit — Rent the landlord says you have not paid
If it came by mail, use the day it arrived.
Pick your notice and enter the date you got it.
The reasons a landlord is allowed to give
Just cause for eviction, Berkeley Municipal Code 13.76.130
A notice has to name one of these. If the reason you were given is not on this list, say so to a housing counsellor before you do anything else — the free help further down this page is the place to start.
These protections reach further than rent control does. They cover most rented homes in Berkeley — including buildings put up after 1980, single-family houses, condominiums, homes owned or leased by the Berkeley Housing Authority and homes rented to Section 8 tenants — so a home with no rent ceiling at all still cannot be ended without one of the reasons below.
Failure to pay rent
You have not paid rent the landlord is legally entitled to, after a notice giving you at least three days to pay or move out, and the amount owed is at least one month of Fair Market Rent for a home your size.
- What you can do about it
- Pay the full amount the notice demands within the time it gives. A part payment does not cancel the notice. If you cannot cover it, the Eviction Defense Center runs a city grant of up to $10,000 to clear back rent — its number is below, and it is worth calling the same day.
One month of Fair Market Rent, Oakland–Fremont area
The non-payment reason has a floor, and it is the one thing on this page you can check for yourself in a minute. The rent you owe has to reach at least one month of the Fair Market Rent that the US Department of Housing and Urban Development publishes for a home your size in this area — so a notice demanding less than the figure for your own size of home does not meet this reason. It is the published figure for your size of home, not your own rent. Whether that sinks a particular notice is for a hearing examiner or a judge, not for this page: take the comparison to one of the free lines below.
| Size of home | One month |
|---|---|
| Studio | $2,142 |
| 1 bedroom | $2,385 |
| 2 bedrooms | $2,912 |
| 3 bedrooms | $3,724 |
| 4 bedrooms | $4,413 |
Carrying on breaking a material lease term
You have carried on breaking a term of the lease after a written notice to cease. The term has to be one both sides actually agreed, the breach has to have caused the landlord real and substantial harm, and the landlord has to show your behaviour was unreasonable. The notice to cease has to name the term and describe the breach and the harm clearly enough for an ordinary person to understand it.
- What you can do about it
- Stop doing what the notice to cease names. On subletting there is a specific protection: you cannot be evicted for breaking a no-subletting term if the landlord unreasonably refused consent, you still live in the home, and the total number of occupants is no more than the tenancy or the Board's rules allow.
Substantial damage you will not put right
You deliberately caused or allowed substantial damage to the home and then refused either to pay for it or to repair it properly, after being asked in writing.
- What you can do about it
- Repair it properly, or pay for the repair, after the written request and before the deadline the notice gives.
Disturbing other occupants' peace and quiet
You have carried on disturbing the peace and quiet of other occupants after a written request to stop.
- What you can do about it
- Stop. A first complaint is not a ground on its own — the written request has to come first, and the disturbance has to continue after it.
Refusing to let the landlord in for a reason state law allows
You have carried on refusing the landlord access during normal business hours, for one of the reasons state law allows, after a written request to stop refusing. California Civil Code section 1954 sets out which reasons those are.
- What you can do about it
- Let them in for a reason section 1954 covers, after the written request. You are entitled to proper notice of the visit, and to refuse access for a reason that section does not cover.
Substantial repairs that cannot be done around you
The home has to be brought up to the Housing Code by repairs so substantial that they cannot be done while you live there. The owner has to hold every permit the work needs before giving you notice. If the owner has any other empty home in Berkeley between the notice and the day you leave, one of them has to be offered to you — to stay in for the duration or for good. The City's Relocation Ordinance may also require the owner to help with the cost of being temporarily displaced, and you have to be offered the home back at the same rent, plus any increases that were authorised meanwhile, once the work is done.
A demolition permit has been granted
The owner has actually received a permit to demolish the home or the building. A plan to apply for one is not this ground.
An owner or a close relative is moving in
An owner of at least a 50% recorded interest in the property — or their spouse, parent or child — wants to live in your home as their main residence, and there was no comparable empty home on any Berkeley property that landlord owns, for the 90 days before you were given notice. There is relocation money: $19,413 for any household that has lived there at least a year, which has to be deposited with the Rent Board within 10 days of the notice being served on you, and a further $6,471 for a household that is low-income, or includes somebody disabled or elderly or a minor child, or whose tenancy began before 1 January 1999. You have to claim that second payment in writing, to the landlord and the Rent Board, within 30 days of the notice being filed. The person moving in has to be there within three months and stay at least 36 months, and you have the right to move back in when they leave — with no time limit on that right, and at your old rent plus only the yearly adjustments that accrued while they lived there.
- What you can do about it
- There is nothing to put right, but there is a list of situations in which this cannot be used at all: where the landlord owns less than half the property; where they have a comparable empty home in Berkeley, now or in the last 90 days; where another unit on the property has already been taken for an owner move-in; where you have lived there a year or more and a minor child lives with you and the notice would take effect during the school year; and, where the landlord has a 10% or larger interest in five or more Berkeley rental units, against any tenant of five years or more who wants to stay — four or more units if that tenant is 60 or over or disabled. If any of those is true of you, say so.
An owner or head tenant moving back in, as the agreement allowed
An owner or head tenant is moving back into a home they rented or sublet to you, where your own rental agreement said they could.
Refusing to leave temporary housing after the repairs are done
You were given temporary housing while your own home was repaired, the repairs are finished, and you will not move back.
Reasons that are not enough on their own
Each of these is something a landlord, a lender, an estate agent or a new owner may tell you means you have to leave. None of them does. If one of these is the reason you were given, that is worth a phone call today rather than a box of packing.
- The building has been sold, or has a new owner — a buyer takes the building with your tenancy attached, and inherits every obligation the old owner had
- Your lease has run out — a fixed term that runs out does not end the tenancy; it carries on month to month on the same terms
- The home's federal Section 8 status has changed — the just cause protections cover homes rented to Section 8 tenants in their own right
- The property has been foreclosed on — a lender or a bank that takes the property takes the tenancies with it
- It is being converted to condominiums or tenancies-in-common — just cause still applies, so most tenants in a converted building do not have to move, and the owner has to tell you in writing that you may carry on renting the home even after it is converted and that you may buy it if you want to. In a tenancy-in-common the only way out is an owner of 50% or more, or their qualifying relative, actually moving in
What the notice itself has to say
- At least one of the reasons above, named on the notice itself.
- That advice is available from the Rent Board, with the Board's current counselling number and its website address on the notice.
- That every covered home on the property is registered with the Rent Board, that its fees are paid and that the rents being charged are lawful.
- That the owner has substantially complied with the duty to keep every covered home on the property habitable.
- The Notice of Tenant Protection Ordinance, attached. For any tenancy that began after April 2017 it also had to be handed over at the start. Not giving it is a defence to the eviction.
Your landlord also has to file a copy of the notice with the Rent Board within three business days, and a copy of the court summons and complaint if one is filed — both can be emailed to rent@berkeleyca.gov. A landlord who did not follow the procedure can lose on that alone, so it is worth checking the notice against this list line by line and keeping the envelope it came in.
The notices a landlord can use in Berkeley
3-day notice to pay rent or quit — Rent the landlord says you have not paid
The most common notice there is. It gives you three court days to pay the rent it demands, or move out. It only has to be paid — not negotiated, not disputed first.
- Notice you must get
- 3 court days
- Can you cancel it?
- Pay the whole amount the notice demands, in full, before the three court days are up. A part payment does not cancel the notice. Keep proof of how and when you paid, and never pay cash without a receipt.
Two things are easy to miss. Berkeley's non-payment reason has a floor — the amount you owe has to reach one month of Fair Market Rent for a home your size, and the table under that reason above has the figures. And how the notice reached you can change when the clock starts: if it was taped to your door and posted rather than handed to you, ask a housing counsellor before you rely on a date.
3-day notice to cure or quit — Something the landlord says you have to put right
Three court days to fix exactly what the notice names — a lease term it says you are breaking, damage it says you caused, access it says you refused — or move out.
- Notice you must get
- 3 court days
- Can you cancel it?
- Put right exactly what the notice names, and keep evidence that you did. If the notice does not say clearly enough what the problem is for you to fix it, that is itself a problem with the notice.
Most of the at-fault reasons above require a written warning before any notice to quit — a notice to cease, or a written request to stop or to repair. If you never got one, say so to a counsellor or a lawyer.
30-day notice to end the tenancy — Ending a tenancy you have had for less than a year
Thirty calendar days, used for the reasons that cannot be fixed by doing something — substantial repairs, demolition, an owner or relative moving in. It still has to name one of them.
- Notice you must get
- At least 30 days
- Can you cancel it?
- Not by fixing the problem — but you can still challenge it at a hearing.
60-day notice to end the tenancy — Ending a tenancy you have had for a year or more
Sixty calendar days instead of thirty, because you have lived there a year or longer. Same reasons, and it still has to name one.
- Notice you must get
- At least 60 days
- Can you cancel it?
- Not by fixing the problem — but you can still challenge it at a hearing.
If the reason is that an owner or a close relative is moving in, there is relocation money — see that reason above — and a list of situations in which the owner is not allowed to use it at all.
120-day Ellis Act notice — The owner is taking the whole building off the rental market
A state law lets an owner go out of the rental business altogether. It is not about anything you did, it takes the whole property rather than one flat, and it carries the longest notice and the most money.
- Notice you must get
- At least 120 days
- Can you cancel it?
- Not by fixing the problem — but you can still challenge it at a hearing.
- What the landlord must pay you
- $19,413 for every household that has lived in the home for at least a year, deposited with the Rent Board when the notice is filed and held there until you ask for it in writing. A household that is low-income, or includes somebody disabled or elderly or a minor child, or whose tenancy began before 1 January 1999, can claim a further $6,471 — but you have to claim it, in writing, to both the landlord and the Rent Board, within 30 days of the notice being delivered or posted. The notice must arrive with two stamped addressed postcards for exactly that.
A senior or disabled tenant who has lived in the home for a year or more gets twelve months rather than 120 days. If the building goes back on the rental market within ten years the owner has to offer it back to the tenants who said they wanted to return, and no vacancy increase may be taken on it for five years.
Court days are weekdays. Saturdays, Sundays and court holidays do not count, and the day you are given the notice is not counted either.
Where evictions are actually decided
Alameda County Superior Court, Department 511
- alameda.courts.ca.gov
- Hayward Hall of Justice, 24405 Amador Street, Hayward. Every eviction case in Alameda County is heard here, not in Berkeley — so if your landlord files, this is where it goes and where you file your answer. You get ten days to answer a summons and complaint once you are served, and Saturdays, Sundays and court holidays do not count in those ten days. Do not let that run out: if you do not answer, the landlord can win by default without a hearing.
Free help
Berkeley Rent Board housing counsellors
- (510) 981-7368
- rent@berkeleyca.gov
- rentboard.berkeleyca.gov
- Free, for tenants and landlords alike; extension 1 reaches a counsellor. They will go through your notice with you and tell you which Rent Board petition fits. They cannot give legal advice about an eviction case, so for that use one of the lines below as well. 2000 Center Street, Suite 400. TDD (510) 981-6903.
East Bay Community Law Center
- (510) 548-4040
- info@ebclc.org
- ebclc.org
- Free eviction defence for low-income Berkeley tenants, with priority for long tenancies in rent-controlled homes, subsidised tenancies and tenants with disabilities. Ask for housing intake; they take your details and call back. 2921 Adeline Street, weekdays 9am to 5pm.
Eviction Defense Center
- (510) 452-4541
- Runs Berkeley's Housing Retention Program for the city — a one-off grant of up to $10,000 to clear back rent for a household at or below 50% of area median income that has been served a pay-or-quit or an unlawful detainer notice. If your notice is about unpaid rent, call this one first.
211 Alameda County
- 211
- Free, 24 hours a day, with interpreters, for when you do not know who to ring. You can also text your ZIP code to 898-211 on weekdays between 9am and 4pm.
Official pages
- Just cause and other local requirementsThe reasons that count and what a notice has to contain, in the Board's own words, with the current Fair Market Rent table.
- The eviction process, step by stepWhat happens after the notice runs out: the complaint, the ten days to answer, the trial, and what the sheriff does if the landlord wins.
- Notice of Tenant Protection OrdinanceThe notice that has to come with any eviction notice. Not giving it is a defence — so it is worth knowing what it looks like.
- Owner or relative move-in evictionsEverything the owner has to do and the situations in which they cannot use it at all. The information packet on that page carries the forms for claiming the extra relocation payment.
- Improper landlord actions and wrongful evictionLock-outs, cut-off utilities, removed services and pressure to take a buyout. If something is happening that is not a notice, start here.
- California Courts self-help: eviction, for tenantsCalifornia's own courts explain the court side: the forms, the deadlines and how the days are counted.
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