Walk It Through: The Three Day Notice

Pay or quit, just cause, the response deadline, and a shut off.

Rent is late, and on a Friday a notice to pay rent or quit is handed to you.

Two things a person in this spot might do. Picking one shows what the law says about it.

One rent notice and one no fault notice. Local rent and eviction ordinances, the exemptions from the just cause section, and how the case is tried are not set out here.

A practice walkthrough, not a prediction of how any real one will go. Legal information, not legal advice.

Words this turns on

Terms with a legal meaning that is narrower than the everyday one. Each links to the definition and the authority behind it.

Just causeThe reason, stated in the written notice, an owner needs to end most tenancies once a tenant has continuously and lawfully occupied a home for 12 months.
Unlawful detainerThe court case through which a landlord gets a home back. For unpaid rent it starts with a written notice giving three days, not counting Saturdays, Sundays and judicial holidays, to pay or give up possession.
Utility shutoffCutting off water, heat, electricity, gas or another utility, changing the locks, or removing doors or windows to end a tenant's occupancy. The landlord owes actual damages and up to $100 for each day it continues.
Writ of possessionThe writ a levying officer serves after the landlord wins. If the occupants have not left within five days of that service, the officer removes them.