If your landlord is sending you multiple eviction notices after you have let them know that they are NOT valid, it can become harassment as well as an eviction tactic. Invalid eviction notices are notices that are not following legal eviction process. In Oakland and in CA, there are specific ways to follow an eviction process.

In addition to the legal process for an eviction, both CA and Oakland have specific eviction protections that may be protecting you. There is the Tenant Protection Act (state law) that includes Eviction protections and requires Just Cause reasons for evictions, and in Oakland there are more strict Just Cause laws.

If your landlord is not following the process or you’re covered under state or Oakland specific Just Cause laws, and the notice does not have a Just Cause reason to evict you but still gives you an eviction notice, this notice is invalid.

If you have received:

  • Multiple verbal eviction threats (this is invalid),
  • Multiple eviction threats by text (this is invalid), or
  • Multiple eviction notices with no Just Cause (these are invalid if you have Just Cause protections)
  • It is also now a Tenant Protection Ordinance (TPO) violation for a landlord to lie and tell a tenant that they need to leave a rental unit when they are not actually required to or to convince a tenant to leave a rental unit by hiding or misrepresenting important facts.
  • * This includes tenants in residential hotels whose landlords force tenants to keep switching rooms in order to avoid protection from Oakland’s Tenant Protection Ordinance (if a landlord does this, the unit will NO longer be covered by the Tenant Protection Ordinance).

Then, you are being harassed by your landlord!

When addressing this issue, it is important to try and communicate with your landlord as much as possible through texts, letters and emails to establish a record. You can start with documenting these instances in detail. If you have received verbal evictions, writing the exact words in your notebook is helpful, if it is through text or on paper, make sure you keep copies of those notices safe.

The second thing you could do is respond to the notices to let your landlord know you are ready to exercise your rights and ask them to stop. This can help you build up your case and you will be able to use this if you end up going to court. When writing the letter, make sure you include the multiple times you have received invalid evictions.

If your landlord continues to try and evict you through invalid notices, it is important that you talk to a tenants rights organization and see if using Oakland’s Tenant Protection Ordinance (TPO) is your next recourse, and/or what your other options are.

Respond to an invalid eviction notice


Write letter citing these evictions as harassment