Evicting Section 8 on Month to Month Lease

[Josh Richter]

Hello i currently have a section 8 tenant in a unit of my duplex and have sent him the notice to quit or pay rent by certain date.  The property is in California and just curious of the process if they don't pay?

[Kyle J.]

@Josh Richter  The first step in the process is to serve the tenant with a 3 Day Pay or Quit notice.  Make sure you do that part right or it can mess up the process down the road (or possibly even invalidate it).  For example, even if they owe you late fees, you can't list them in the notice.  Also, not sure what you mean by you "sent him the notice".  There are only three ways to properly serve this notice to the tenant: 1) Personal service (hand it to them); 2) Substitute service (serve another adult who can give it to them); or 3) "Nail and mail" (post it on their door or a conspicuous place and mail another copy to them).   

Here's some more info on 3 Day notices: http://www.scscourt.org/self_help/civil/ud/ud_before.shtml

After you've served the 3 Day notice and the 3 days have passed without payment, the next step would be to proceed with an Unlawful Detainer action.  Here's some more info on the whole step-by-step process: http://www.courts.ca.gov/27701.htm.

Since you're out of state, you'll probably want a local attorney or eviction service to help you through this as it's not really a DIY job for someone out of town.

Lastly, since the tenant is Section 8, make sure you provide the Housing Authority copies of any notice(s) you serve to the tenant.

Good luck.