A protective order does not cancel your lease by itself. If the order excludes you from a home you share with the protected person, the landlord can be required to change the locks, and you can still owe rent under the lease at the same time. An eviction case can also end with a court order that removes only you while the tenancy continues for the others.
If you are locked out of a home you are still on the lease for
Civil Code section 1941.6 applies when the restrained person is a tenant of the same unit as the protected tenant. If the protected tenant gives the landlord a written request and a copy of a court order that excludes you from the unit, the landlord must change the locks at its own expense no later than 24 hours after the protected tenant provides the order, and give the protected tenant a key to the new locks. The order must have been issued within the last 180 days under one of the listed laws, which include domestic violence restraining and emergency protective orders, civil harassment orders, and criminal protective orders. If the landlord does not change the locks within 24 hours, the protected tenant can change them and be reimbursed. The landlord is not liable to you for a lock change made under this section.
Being locked out this way does not end your own obligations. The statute says a person excluded from the unit “remains liable under the lease with all other tenants of the dwelling unit for rent as provided in the lease” (Civil Code section 1941.6(e)). You can be locked out of the home and still owe rent as your lease provides.
A related but different statute, Civil Code section 1941.5, covers lock changes when the person alleged to have committed the abuse is not a tenant of the same unit. It does not apply to a co-tenant.
Can the landlord evict just you?
California generally stops a landlord from ending or refusing to renew a tenancy because of abuse against a tenant or a tenant’s household or family member, once the landlord has documentation of that abuse (Code of Civil Procedure section 1161.3(b)(1)). That rule protects the tenant who was abused, and it has an exception aimed at your situation: the landlord may still end the tenancy when the person who committed the abuse is a tenant in residence of the same unit, which the statute defines as a tenant currently living there with full physical and legal access (1161.3(a)(8), (b)(2)(A)). For this law, the person a qualifying protective order was issued against counts as the perpetrator (1161.3(a)(5)(A)). If an order has already removed you from the unit, how the tenant-in-residence definition applies to you is a question to take to a lawyer.
If an eviction case based on the abuse reaches court and the protected tenant raises the abuse as a defense, the court first decides whether there is documentation of it. If there is, the protected tenant is not found guilty of unlawful detainer on other grounds, and it is shown that you were the perpetrator and are guilty of unlawful detainer, the court must order a partial eviction: you are removed and barred from the unit, the landlord must change the locks and give the remaining occupants new keys, and the court may not terminate the tenancy itself (Code of Civil Procedure section 1174.27(f)(1)). Only a defendant found guilty of unlawful detainer can be held liable for holdover damages, court costs, lease termination fees, or attorney’s fees from that case (1174.27(f)(2)). The court may also permanently bar you from the property and make it a condition of the tenancy that the remaining occupants not invite you to live there, taking custody and visitation arrangements into account (1174.27(f)(3), (4)).
One limit works in your favor. A finding in that eviction case that you were the perpetrator is not a finding for any other purpose, and it is not admissible in another proceeding, including a criminal case, as evidence that you committed a crime or abuse (1174.27(h)).
If the protected person ends their tenancy early
The protected tenant, or a tenant whose household or immediate family member was the victim, can give the landlord written notice with qualifying documentation, such as a copy of the protective order, to end the tenancy early. That tenant then owes rent for no more than 14 days after the notice and is released without penalty from any further rent or other payment under the lease (Civil Code section 1946.7(b), (e)).
That release covers the tenant who gave notice and members of that tenant’s household. It does not relieve other tenants on the lease of their own obligations (1946.7(g)). If the protected person ends their tenancy this way, do not assume your name comes off the lease too, or that your rent obligation ends when theirs does.
What to actually do
- Read your order’s exact wording. Some orders exclude you from a specific residence; others only restrict contact with the person, which is a narrower restriction.
- Do not try to re-enter a unit you have been excluded from on your own, even to collect belongings. That risks a new protective order violation on top of the lease dispute.
- Deal with the landlord about rent, keys, or lease changes in writing, and do not use the landlord to pass messages to the protected person.
- If you are served with an unlawful detainer (an eviction lawsuit), your response is due within 10 days after service, not counting weekends and court holidays (Code of Civil Procedure section 1167). If you do not respond, the landlord can obtain a default judgment for possession (section 1169).
- Talk to a lawyer before assuming either that you are stuck paying the full lease or that you are automatically off the hook. The answer depends on the order’s specific terms, who is actually named on the lease, and whether the protected tenant has used the early-termination process described above.
A protective order, a lease, and a landlord’s own decisions can pull in different directions at the same time. The Law Offices of David S. Chesley can review your order and your lease together. Call (800) 755-5174.