New guidance from the state Attorney General’s office reminds law enforcement officers that evictions without a court order (self-help evictions) are illegal in California.  The guide states “it has long been the law in California that a tenant can be removed from a rental property only after there has been a court judgment and a writ of possession has been issued.”

In long term care facilities, residents are often subjected to self-help evictions.  The expiration of time on a discharge notice does not authorize a residential long term care provider to force a resident out.  Occasionally, long term care facility residents who are hospitalized or leave the facility for a short time are refused readmission (i.e., an illegal lock-out).  In some wrongful long term care facility eviction cases, the police are called and, rather than stop the illegal self-help eviction, they actually enable the eviction by threatening the resident with arrest for “trespassing” in their own home.  Hopefully, the Attorney General’s guidance will end law enforcement’s ignorance about what is legally required in eviction cases and help reduce illegal self-help evictions.