TL;DR — Key Takeaways
- A 3 day notice to pay or quit California landlords use for unpaid rent is governed by Code of Civil Procedure section 1161(2), and the three days now exclude Saturdays, Sundays, and other judicial holidays. The same exclusion applies to the three-day notice to perform covenants or quit under section 1161(3).
- Section 1161(2) prescribes content, not just a deadline. The notice must state the amount due and the name, telephone number, and address of the payee, plus either the usual days and hours that person is available for personal delivery, an account number with the name and street address of a financial institution within five miles of the property, or a previously established electronic funds transfer procedure.
- Termination notices for a periodic tenancy come from Civil Code section 1946.1: 60 days from the owner where the tenant has occupied the property for a year or more, and 30 days where occupancy has been less than a year. A tenant terminating gives notice at least as long as the period of the tenancy.
- Ninety days is not a general option. It appears in two specific places: Code of Civil Procedure section 1161b, for a month-to-month tenant in possession when the property sells at foreclosure, and Civil Code section 1954.535, when an owner terminates a rent-limiting contract with a government agency.
- Service is statutory, not discretionary. Code of Civil Procedure section 1162 permits personal delivery, substituted service plus mailing, or posting and mailing where neither is possible. A landlord may not charge a fee for serving any of these notices.
The Direct Answer
A 3 day notice to pay or quit in California is the written demand a landlord must serve under Code of Civil Procedure section 1161(2) before filing an unlawful detainer for unpaid rent. The three days exclude weekends and judicial holidays, and the notice must state the amount due and exactly how and where the tenant may pay.
3 Day Notice to Pay or Quit California: What the Statute Requires
Section 1161(2) makes a tenant guilty of unlawful detainer when the tenant stays in possession after defaulting in rent and after service of a three-day written notice requiring payment or possession. The elements that follow the word “requiring” are the ones that get notices thrown out.
Sections below are marked for the side they speak to. The content list applies to both.
The notice must state:
The amount that is due. One number, and it has to be right. The demand is not limited to base rent: in Bevill v. Zoura the Court of Appeal held that common area maintenance charges the lease obliged the tenant to pay were properly included, on the rule that a three-day notice may reach any sums due under the lease. What the notice may not do is ask for more than is owed, and that is the defect most likely to be fatal.
The name, telephone number, and address of the person to whom the rent payment shall be made. All three. A notice that names a management company without a telephone number is incomplete on its face.
How payment can actually be made. The statute gives three alternatives. If payment may be made personally, the notice states the usual days and hours that person will be available to receive it. Alternatively the notice gives an account number at a financial institution into which payment may be made, with the name and street address of the institution, and the statute requires that institution to be located within five miles of the rental property. Or, where an electronic funds transfer procedure was previously established, the notice may say payment can be made that way.
The statute adds a protection for tenants. If the address given does not allow for personal delivery, rent or a notice mailed to the name and address provided is conclusively presumed received on the date posted, provided the tenant can show proof of mailing.
Two more provisions of section 1161 matter here. The notice may be served at any time within one year after the rent becomes due. And subdivision 6 states flatly that a landlord or its agent shall not charge a tenant a fee for serving, posting, or otherwise delivering any notice described in the section.
Which Notice Period Applies to Which Situation?
| Notice | When it applies | Authority |
|---|---|---|
| 3 days, excluding weekends and judicial holidays, to pay or quit | Default in the payment of rent | CCP Sec. 1161(2) |
| 3 days, excluding weekends and judicial holidays, to perform or quit | Breach of a lease condition or covenant other than rent, where the breach is curable | CCP Sec. 1161(3) |
| 3 days to quit, no cure | Assigning or subletting in breach, waste, nuisance, or using the premises for an unlawful purpose | CCP Sec. 1161(4) |
| 30 days from the owner | Periodic tenancy where the tenant has occupied the property less than one year | Civ. Code Sec. 1946.1(c) |
| 60 days from the owner | Periodic tenancy where the tenant has occupied the property one year or more | Civ. Code Sec. 1946.1(b) |
| 30 days from the owner, notwithstanding the 60-day rule | Separately alienable unit in escrow to a natural-person buyer who intends to occupy it, notice within 120 days of opening escrow, no prior notice given | Civ. Code Sec. 1946.1(d) |
| At least as long as the tenancy period, from the tenant | Tenant terminating a periodic tenancy; 30 days for month to month | Civ. Code Sec. 1946 and Sec. 1946.1(b) |
| 90 days to quit | Month-to-month tenant or subtenant in possession when the property is sold in foreclosure | CCP Sec. 1161b(a) |
| 90 days | Owner terminates or fails to renew a rent-limiting contract with a government agency | Civ. Code Sec. 1954.535 |
Three cautions about that table.
It is a table of notice periods, not of permissions. For a tenancy covered by Civil Code section 1946.2, the correct number of days does nothing unless the notice also states a just cause and, for a no-fault cause, complies with the relocation assistance rules.
The three-day counts in section 1161 exclude Saturdays, Sundays, and other judicial holidays. The 30, 60, and 90-day periods do not carry that exclusion.
And a fixed-term lease is not a periodic tenancy. Section 1946.1 governs a hiring for a term not specified by the parties. A lease that expires on its own terms is handled under section 1161(1).
Counting the Three Days
The exclusion of weekends and judicial holidays is written into subdivisions 2 and 3 of section 1161 themselves, and it changes the arithmetic more than people expect.
For landlords, the practical effect is that a three-day notice served on a Thursday does not expire on Sunday. Saturday and Sunday drop out, and if Monday is a court holiday it drops out too. Filing the unlawful detainer before the notice has actually expired is a defect that survives all the way to judgment.
For tenants, the same arithmetic buys real time, and the response window after filing is longer than it used to be – 10 days under Code of Civil Procedure section 1167(a), again excluding weekends and judicial holidays.
When Must a Landlord Give 60 or 90 Days Instead of 30?
Sixty days is the default for an owner ending a periodic tenancy. Section 1946.1(b) requires an owner to give notice at least 60 days before the proposed termination date, and section 1946.1(c) cuts that to 30 days only where the tenant or resident has occupied the property for less than one year. So the 60 day notice to vacate California requires is the rule and the 30-day notice is the exception, which is the reverse of how most people describe it.
There is one further 30-day path, at section 1946.1(d), and it is narrow. All six conditions must be met: the unit is alienable separate from title, the owner has contracted to sell it to a bona fide purchaser for value and opened escrow with a qualifying escrow holder, the purchaser is a natural person, the notice is given no more than 120 days after escrow was established, no prior section 1946.1 notice went to that tenant, and the purchaser in good faith intends to reside there for at least one full year.
Ninety days is not a longer version of the same notice. Under section 1161b(a), a month-to-month tenant or subtenant in possession when the property sells in foreclosure gets 90 days’ written notice to quit served under section 1162, and under (b) a tenant under a fixed-term lease entered into before the transfer of title keeps possession to the end of the term unless one of four listed conditions applies, with the burden of proving the exception on the purchaser. Under Civil Code section 1954.535, a tenant who benefited from a rent-limiting government contract gets 90 days’ written notice when the owner terminates or fails to renew it, and cannot be charged more than the contract rent for those 90 days.
Notices under section 1946.1 also carry required content: subdivision (h) prescribes the abandoned personal property paragraph, and subdivision (i) prohibits charging the tenant a fee for delivering the notice.
How Must a Notice Be Served?
Code of Civil Procedure section 1162(a) supplies three methods for residential notices under sections 1161 and 1161a, in order of preference.
Personal delivery. A copy delivered to the tenant personally.
Substituted service. If the tenant is absent from both the residence and the usual place of business, a copy left with a person of suitable age and discretion at either place, plus a copy sent through the mail addressed to the tenant at the residence. Both halves are required; leaving the copy without mailing does not complete service.
Posting and mailing. If the place of residence and business cannot be ascertained, or no person of suitable age or discretion can be found there, a copy affixed in a conspicuous place on the property, plus a copy delivered to a person residing there if one can be found, plus a copy mailed to the tenant at the property address. This is the method that requires diligence first; it is not a shortcut.
Subdivision (b) supplies a different sequence for commercial tenants; using it on a residential tenancy is a service defect. For termination notices rather than notices to quit, Civil Code sections 1946 and 1946.1(f) permit service in the section 1162 manner or by certified or registered mail. A tenant may also serve the lessor’s agent to whom rent was paid for the prior month.
What Happens When the Notice Is Defective?
The consequence depends on which requirement was missed, and the statutes are more explicit than the folklore.
Where the tenancy is covered by Civil Code section 1946.2, the statute answers directly. Subdivision (g) provides that an owner’s failure to comply with any provision of the section renders the written termination notice void, and subdivision (d)(4) says the same about the relocation assistance requirements specifically. Void is not voidable; the unlawful detainer built on that notice does not stand, and subdivision (h) adds actual damages, discretionary attorney’s fees, treble damages on a showing of willfulness or oppression, fraud or malice, and punitive damages where the owner attempted to recover possession in material violation.
Outside section 1946.2, the rule comes from the courts, and it is stricter than most summaries of it. Because an unlawful detainer is a summary proceeding, a three-day notice is valid only if the landlord strictly complies with section 1161(2). A notice demanding more than is actually due does not state “the amount which is due” and will not support the action. The Court of Appeal reversed a landlord’s judgment on exactly that ground in Bevill v. Zoura (1994) 27 Cal.App.4th 694, where the notice swept in $17,932.70 of rent that had come due more than a year earlier and the landlord admitted at trial that he would have accepted nothing less – so the tenant never had a real opportunity to cure. Understating the amount is a different matter, because the rule exists to guarantee that opportunity rather than to protect the landlord’s arithmetic.
There is one softening, and it is narrower than it looks. In Levitz Furniture Co. v. Wingtip Communications, Inc. (2001) 86 Cal.App.4th 1035, the Court of Appeal held that including rent more than a year old is not by itself fatal where the notice also demands rent that came due within the year. Both of those cases are commercial tenancies, and Levitz turns on Code of Civil Procedure section 1161.1, which by its own subdivision (d) applies only to commercial property and lets a commercial landlord label the amount an estimate. A residential landlord has no equivalent provision. So a defective eviction notice California landlords have served is worth an assessment rather than an assumption – but the assessment starts from strict compliance, not from substantial compliance.
For landlords, the practical rule is that a defective notice is not repaired by filing. It is repaired by serving a correct notice and starting the period again, which costs weeks rather than months.
For tenants, a defect is a defense to that lawsuit, not a right to stay. The rent that was owed is still owed, and the landlord can serve a compliant notice the following week.
After the Notice: What the Unlawful Detainer Timeline Looks Like
The notice is a precondition, not the case. When the period runs out without payment, cure, or surrender, the landlord may file an unlawful detainer complaint, and under section 1167 the defendant’s response is due within 10 days excluding weekends and judicial holidays, plus five court days for mail service. Section 1161(3) also lets the tenant, a subtenant in actual occupation, or any other person interested in the term perform the covenants or pay the rent inside the three days and save the lease from forfeiture.
When to Bring Counsel Into a Notice Problem
Four triggers. A covered tenancy, because if Civil Code section 1946.2 applies the notice has to carry a stated just cause and, on a no-fault cause, the relocation election and payment – and getting that wrong voids the notice under subdivision (g) rather than merely delaying it. Any dispute about the amount, because a good faith disagreement about charges, credits, or partial payments converts a routine notice into a contested one. Service by posting, because that method requires that the residence and business could not be ascertained or that no suitable person was found there. And, for tenants, a notice already expired, because the options before a complaint is filed differ from the options afterward.
Several adjacent questions are covered separately: what the unlawful detainer lawsuit actually involves, how a landlord decides whether a breach justifies a notice at all, the difference between eviction and lease abandonment, what a landlord’s remedies are when a tenant breaches, and how the rent cap and just cause rules affect which notices are even available.
Work with Bay Legal
Bay Legal, PC advises California landlords and tenants on rental notices, service defects, and unlawful detainer strategy, from the first three-day notice through judgment. If you are preparing a notice, or you have received one and the numbers or the dates do not look right, call (650) 668-8000 in Northern California or (213) 668-8000 in Southern California, or schedule a consultation at https://baylegal.com/contact-us/.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which notice period applies to which situation in California?
Three days for nonpayment of rent or a curable lease breach, excluding weekends and judicial holidays, and three days with no cure for subletting in breach, waste, nuisance, or unlawful use. Thirty or 60 days ends a periodic tenancy, depending on whether the tenant has occupied the property for less than a year or a year or more. Ninety days applies in two specific situations: a month-to-month tenant in possession when the property sells at foreclosure, and an owner ending a rent-limiting contract with a government agency.
What must a 3-day notice to pay or quit contain?
The amount that is due, and the name, telephone number, and address of the person to whom the rent is to be paid. It must also tell the tenant how to pay: the usual days and hours that person is available if payment may be made personally, or an account number with the name and street address of a financial institution located within five miles of the property, or reference to a previously established electronic funds transfer procedure. The notice may be served any time within one year after the rent came due.
When must a landlord give 60 or 90 days instead of 30?
An owner ending a periodic tenancy must give 60 days when the tenant has occupied the property for a year or more, and 30 days when occupancy has been less than a year. A narrow 30-day path exists for a separately alienable unit in escrow to a natural-person buyer who intends to occupy it, if all six statutory conditions are met. Ninety days is not a general option: it applies to a month-to-month tenant in possession at a foreclosure sale, and to a tenant whose rent-limiting government contract the owner is terminating.
How must a notice be served to be legally valid?
By personal delivery to the tenant; or, if the tenant is absent from both the residence and the usual place of business, by leaving a copy with a person of suitable age and discretion at either place and mailing a copy to the residence; or, if neither can be ascertained and no suitable person is found, by affixing a copy conspicuously on the property, delivering a copy to a person residing there if one can be found, and mailing a copy to the property address. Termination notices may alternatively go by certified or registered mail.
What happens if a notice is defective or improperly served?
For a tenancy covered by the just cause statute, failure to comply with any provision of that section renders the termination notice void, and an owner who tries to recover possession in material violation faces actual damages, attorney’s fees, treble damages on a showing of willfulness or oppression, and punitive damages. Outside that statute, a defect is raised as a defense in the unlawful detainer, and whether it ends the case or merely delays it is a question of case law rather than statute. Either way, the underlying rent obligation does not disappear.
