Updated August 16, 2026
AB 2347 changed one number, and the number is small. Effective January 1, 2025, a tenant's window to respond to an unlawful detainer filing went from five court days to ten. That is it. For an owner carrying a genuine problem tenancy it adds a couple of weeks to a process that was already slow, and for a buyer underwriting a building with existing tenant issues it belongs in the hold-period model. This is a broker's plain-English explainer, not legal advice.
An unlawful detainer is California's eviction lawsuit. After a landlord serves the required notice and the notice period expires, the landlord files, the tenant is served, and the tenant has a window to file a response. AB 2347 doubled that window from five court days to ten.
Court days, not calendar days — weekends and court holidays do not count, so ten court days is usually about two calendar weeks.
The extra week only lands on an already long path. In Los Angeles the realistic sequence runs notice period, filing, service, response window, trial setting, judgment, then lockout — and each stage carries its own delay, with LA courts among the busier calendars in the state.
The practical effect is not the ten days. It is that the ten days sit on top of everything else, so the honest planning assumption for a contested eviction in LA lengthened again. For an owner deciding whether to pursue an eviction before selling, that matters: a process you cannot complete before closing is a process you are handing to the buyer regardless of who filed it.
It affects timeline, not price, in most cases. A building's value is set by its income and its upside, not by the eviction calendar. What the calendar affects is whether a specific unit can be resolved before a closing date.
It matters when the deal depends on delivery. If a purchase agreement contemplates a unit being delivered vacant, the timeline risk sits with whoever promised it — which is a good reason for a seller never to make that promise. Disclose the pending matter, allocate who controls it after close, and let the buyer underwrite the outcome.
It compounds on distressed rent rolls. A building with several delinquent tenancies carries a longer, more expensive path to a clean rent roll than the same building carried in 2023. Buyers who model that properly bid accordingly.
Sellers. If you are considering starting an eviction to clean up the rent roll before listing, model the full LA timeline honestly, then ask whether selling with the tenancy disclosed and priced is the better route. Frequently it is — the buyer discounts a known problem less than they discount an unresolved process with an unknown end date.
Buyers. Add the extended response window to your hold-period assumptions on any building with existing tenant issues, and get the full litigation file on anything already filed.
How long does an eviction take in Los Angeles now?
There is no reliable single number — it depends on the grounds, whether the tenant is represented, and the court's calendar. What AB 2347 did was add roughly two calendar weeks to the response stage of an already lengthy process. Anyone quoting you a confident total is guessing.
Does this change the notice period before I file?
No. AB 2347 governs the tenant's window to respond after the lawsuit is filed. The notice periods that come before filing are set by other law, including the local just-cause ordinance that applies to your building.
Can I sell a building with an eviction in progress?
Yes, and it happens routinely. The case does not terminate on sale; the new owner is generally substituted in to continue it. Who controls the case, who pays the legal fees, and who receives any judgment should all be written into the purchase agreement rather than left to be argued later.
Does a pending eviction reduce my sale price?
Usually modestly, and in proportion to the uncertainty rather than the unit. A well-documented at-fault case with proper notices moves the price very little. A contested case with counterclaims moves it more, because the buyer is pricing a range of outcomes.
AB 2347 is a two-week change that reads as trivial and behaves as one more reason not to build a sale strategy around clearing tenants. The reliable path in Los Angeles has not changed: price the rent roll you have, disclose what is pending, and let the buyer underwrite the timeline with their own capital and their own patience.
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