Unauthorized Occupants: Legal Process, Not a Cleaning Job

When someone is living in your house without permission, getting them out is a legal process, not a clean-out. Where the occupant can claim to be a tenant, California law bars lockouts, utility shut-offs and removing belongings to end the occupancy, and the path that fits (a trespass report to the police, or an unlawful detainer case in court) turns on facts an attorney should judge. What you can do right away is document the situation, report it, keep the house insured and the taxes paid, and get both numbers on the house written around the legal timeline.

Mr. Cali Offers is not a law firm. The steps below describe the process so your conversation with an attorney starts in the right place.

First question: who is in the house?

"Squatter" covers several different situations, and each one has a different legal path. The occupant's claim, not the owner's frustration, decides which one applies.

Who is thereThe usual pathWho decides

A stranger who entered an empty house with no claim at all

A trespass report: Penal Code section 602, subdivision (m), covers entering and occupying property without the owner's consent

The police

A former tenant, or a tenant's guest who stayed on

Written notice, then an unlawful detainer case under Code of Civil Procedure section 1161, plus any local just-cause rules

The court

Someone holding a "lease" from a person who never owned the house

Often the court, because the occupant claims a right to be there

An attorney, then the court

A relative or heir living in an inherited house

The authority of the executor, administrator or trustee, and possibly the probate court

The estate's attorney

A single lodger in a home the owner lives in

Penal Code section 602.3, which applies only to owner-occupied dwellings

Not a vacant-house tool

For an inherited house, see selling an inherited house and probate sales. For the ownership myths that come with occupants, see squatters' rights in California.

What not to do, and why

The instinct is to treat the house like a job site: change the locks, turn off the water, haul the belongings to the curb. Each of those can turn the owner into the defendant.

• No lockouts or shut-offs. Civil Code section 789.3 bars a landlord from interrupting utilities, changing locks, removing doors or windows, or removing a tenant's belongings to end the occupancy, and makes a landlord who does it liable for damages.
• No force. Code of Civil Procedure section 1159 defines forcible entry, including turning out the party in possession by force, threats or menacing conduct.
• The courts say the same. The California courts' eviction guide states that a landlord cannot lock a tenant out, shut off utilities or throw out belongings, and must go through the court process.

Whether those rules reach a particular occupant depends on whether the person can claim to be a tenant. That is exactly the judgment to leave to an attorney before acting.

What to do this week

1. Document from outside. Photos with dates, notes of what neighbors have seen, any vehicles. Do not confront anyone inside.
2. Report it. Call the local police or sheriff's non-emergency line. Ask about Penal Code section 602, subdivision (o): an owner who is absent from the property can file one notarized request, on the agency's own form, covering a set period of up to 12 months.
3. Talk to an attorney before serving any notice. The wrong notice can cost months.
4. Call your insurer. An occupied-without-permission house is a different risk from an empty one. See insuring a vacant house.
5. Keep the property taxes current, and the mailing address on file with the county correct.
6. Answer the city. If a code notice arrives while the occupant is there (debris, an open structure, people living in an unpermitted unit), the case runs against the owner regardless. Keep the case number.
7. Get the two numbers. Both are written with the occupant in the picture, not around a hoped-for move-out date.

How the court path works, in outline

When the matter goes to court, it follows the unlawful detainer process the courts' self-help guide describes. Each step's deadline is set by statute and by the court's calendar.

1. Notice. A written notice, of the type the facts call for.
2. The case. If the occupant stays, the owner files an unlawful detainer case and has the papers served.
3. Everyone in the house. Under Code of Civil Procedure section 415.46, a prejudgment claim of right to possession can be served by a marshal, sheriff or registered process server on anyone who appears to occupy the premises, so unnamed adults living there are brought into the case.
4. Response and judgment. The occupant can respond; if not, the owner can ask the judge to decide without them.
5. Writ of possession. If the owner wins, the court issues a writ, and the sheriff posts a notice to vacate before returning possession.

Timing is on the court's calendar. Nobody can honestly promise you a move-out date at the start.

Why it is still not a cleaning job afterward

Even after possession comes back, what the occupant left behind is not simply trash. California has a separate procedure for personal property left on the premises after an occupancy ends (Civil Code section 1980 and following, which section 789.3 points to). Ask your attorney how it applies before anything goes to the dump. Only then does the house become what the cash buyer or the listing agent will see: often damaged, sometimes full. If it is full, selling a house with the contents still inside covers the clean-out math.

How an occupant changes the two numbers

Every house we walk gets an as-is cash offer and an open-market read on the same sheet. With an occupant, the walkthrough is scheduled around what is lawful and safe, and what could not be seen is noted rather than guessed.

As-is cash offerOpen-market read

The occupant

Bought with the occupant in place; the legal process is accounted for

Most buyers and lenders need the house vacant first

Access

What could not be inspected is a written line

The buyer's inspection and appraisal need full access

Holding cost

Stops at closing

Runs through the court process, the repairs and the listing

Damage and contents

Deducted as found

Repaired and cleared by you before listing

Net to you

-

-

Listing nets more when the occupant leaves (on their own or through the process), the damage is light, and you can carry the monthly costs until a listed sale closes. The open-market read is a preliminary estimate, not an appraisal. The holding-cost worksheet in the pillar, selling a vacant house or one with code violations, is the tool for that comparison.

An Ontario note

Our Ontario page lists vacant houses with shut-off utilities or unauthorized occupants among the common sale situations in that city. In Ontario, property maintenance and code cases go to the city's Community Improvement Department, which also runs a rental inspection program, so a house that was once a rental may already have a file with the city. An Ontario sale records in San Bernardino County, not Los Angeles County. The Ontario page has the city's other rules that touch a sale.

What this looks like in practice

These are the kinds of files that come in, described without names or figures.

• An Ontario house with unauthorized occupants, where the owner needs the situation reflected honestly in both numbers.
• A rental where the tenant left and a friend of the tenant stayed, with no lease in anyone's name.
• An out-of-state owner who learned from a neighbor that someone had moved in; see selling from out of state.

More guides are in the vacant houses and code violations section. If someone is living in your house without permission, tell us at the start through the vacant property and code violation page or at (909) 498-3977. There is no cost and no obligation to get the two numbers and the written report.

Sources

• California Penal Code section 602 (trespass, subdivisions (m) and (o)): leginfo.legislature.ca.gov, accessed October 31, 2026
• California Penal Code section 602.3 (lodger in an owner-occupied dwelling): leginfo.legislature.ca.gov, accessed October 31, 2026
• California Civil Code section 789.3 (utility shut-offs, lockouts and removal of belongings): leginfo.legislature.ca.gov, accessed October 31, 2026
• California Code of Civil Procedure section 1159 (forcible entry): leginfo.legislature.ca.gov, accessed October 31, 2026
• California Code of Civil Procedure section 1161 (unlawful detainer): leginfo.legislature.ca.gov, accessed October 31, 2026
• California Code of Civil Procedure section 415.46 (prejudgment claim of right to possession): leginfo.legislature.ca.gov, accessed October 31, 2026
• Judicial Branch of California, Eviction cases in California (self-help guide): selfhelp.courts.ca.gov, accessed October 31, 2026
• City of Ontario, Community Improvement: ontarioca.gov, accessed October 31, 2026

Mr. Cali Offers is not a law firm; removing an occupant is a legal process to run with your own attorney. Cash offers come from independent buyers and investors who buy for their own account and may resell for profit; a cash offer is generally below what the open market would bring. Any value shown is a preliminary estimate, not an appraisal. Nothing here is legal, tax or financial advice.