On COVID Emergency Eviction Protections

Last updated: February 10, 2021

Tenants in the Bay Area have been and are protected by a patchwork of different COVID-related emergency eviction protections that govern different parts of the eviction process. Each of those emergency protections has been implemented by a different body of government and has a different expiration date. It gets confusing. This purpose of this page is to make clear the basic differences between the different protections and to serve as an updated record of when each protection expires. The present version of this page has last been updated on August 22nd.

To begin with, the flowchart below illustrates the steps in the eviction process—from the initial eviction notice (such as a 3 Day Pay or Quit) to the Notice to Vacate served by the County Sheriff before final lockout.

As indicated in the flowchart, there are three major sets of eviction protections, Eviction Moratoria, Court Closures, and Orders to Sheriffs. Eviction Moratoria generally say which eviction notices are legal or not and give tenants grounds to defeat an eviction lawsuit (aka Unlawful Detainer) if the landlord takes things to court. So far these have been implemented by Cities and Counties. Court Closures have been implemented by Counties and by the State Judicial Council to prevent Unlawful Detainers from being processed, including blocking service to tenants of court papers such as “Summons and Complaint of Unlawful Detainer” (aka UD). Orders to Sheriffs prevent County Sheriffs from processing court eviction judgements, when tenants have either lost their case or failed to respond to their court papers. These orders prevent Sheriffs from serving Notices to Vacate to tenants, as required prior to physically removing them from their homes and locking them out. As long as Sheriffs have these orders, tenants can’t legally be physically evicted. As long as courts are closed, landlords can’t do anything with with their eviction notices. As long as eviction moratoria continue, certain kinds of eviction notices should be easily beaten if the tenant goes to court.

Please note that for the present purposes the most pivotal stage of the eviction process is when a tenant receives a UD. If the tenant does not respond to this in court within five business days of receiving it the landlord may get a default judgement from the court in the tenant’s absence. Whenever possible, tenants should seek legal aid when responding to the UD. Below are blank examples of a Summons and Complaint of Unlawful Detainer.