✓ Law Verified August 2026
A California eviction record can block apartment applications for years — often regardless of how the case actually ended. This guide answers the question directly for California: whether a sealing law exists here, exactly how to use it if it does, and the real alternatives if it does not. Verified against official California sources as of August 2026.
In This California Guide:
How the California Sealing Law Works
| The law | Code of Civil Procedure section 1161.2, enacted by AB 2819 (Chapter 640, Statutes of 2016), effective January 1, 2017, and amended by AB 2304 (Chapter 711, Statutes of 2024), effective January 1, 2025. Related tenant-screening protection: Civil Code section 1785.13 (Consumer Credit Reporting Agencies Act). |
| Who qualifies | All limited civil unlawful detainer (eviction) case records — that is, evictions where the landlord demands 35000 or less, which is the large majority of residential eviction cases. The clerk masks the court file, index, and register of actions from the public on the day the complaint is filed. The record stays masked permanently unless the landlord obtains a judgment against ALL defendants, after a trial, within 60 days of filing the complaint. That means many tenants keep a permanently non-public record if: the case was dismissed, the tenant won at trial or on demurrer, the parties settled, the landlord never got judgment, or the case simply took longer than 60 days to resolve. As of January 1, 2025, AB 2304 extended the same masking to mobilehome park residents, who had been excluded since 1993. Unlimited civil unlawful detainers (over 35000) and cases where the landlord won at trial inside the 60-day window do not get this protection. |
| Automatic or petition | AUTOMATIC. There is no petition, no form, and no application — masking happens by operation of law at the moment the complaint is filed, and it simply never lifts unless the landlord meets the 60-day judgment condition. A California tenant does not have to do anything to get it. Separately, if a record has already become public (landlord won within 60 days, or an unlimited civil case), there is no statutory expungement remedy; the only route is a discretionary motion to seal under California Rules of Court 2.550 and 2.551, which requires overriding interests that outweigh the public’s right of access and is rarely granted in eviction cases. Note also that when a default judgment is set aside, the 60-day clock is measured from the date the default judgment was set aside, so a successful set-aside motion can restore the masking in many cases — confirm how your court applies this with your court’s self-help center. |
| Waiting period | NONE. Masking begins on the filing date with no waiting period. The 60 days in the statute is a deadline on the landlord, not a waiting period on the tenant. |
| Cost | 0 for the automatic masking — there is no fee, because nothing is filed. If you file a motion (to set aside a default judgment, or to seal an already-public record), the uniform motion fee under Government Code section 70617(a) is 60. A tenant who cannot afford that may request a fee waiver using Judicial Council form FW-001, and many low-income tenants qualify. |
Step by Step: Sealing Your California Eviction Record
For the automatic masking, nothing is filed — it is already in place.
Steps that are useful to a California tenant: (1) If a default judgment was entered against you, file a Motion to Set Aside/Vacate the default judgment in the same superior court that heard the eviction, under Code of Civil Procedure section 473(b), within 6 months of entry of the default, on grounds of mistake, inadvertence, surprise, or excusable neglect;
under section 473(d) a void judgment (for example, defective service of the summons) can be attacked at any time.
File a notice of motion, a supporting declaration, and a proposed answer; serve the landlord’s attorney by mail; and appear at the hearing.
(2) If you are settling, negotiate a written stipulation for dismissal of the case rather than a judgment, and ask that the settlement expressly state the unlawful detainer may NOT be reported — under Civil Code 1785.13, a settlement only becomes reportable if the written agreement says it may be reported.
(3) If the record is already public, a motion to seal under California Rules of Court 2.550-2.551 is filed in the same court with a supporting declaration; the Los Angeles Law Library and local self-help centers publish pro per motion-to-seal templates.
(4) You may also appeal an eviction judgment; a notice of appeal in a limited civil case is generally due 30 days after service of notice of entry of judgment — check the deadline with your court, because eviction appeal deadlines are short.
What sealing actually does: While a case is masked, the court clerk may not give the file, index, or register of actions to the general public, including tenant screening companies that pull court records in bulk — access is limited to the parties, their attorneys, and a narrow set of people who can already supply specific case identifiers. Screening companies therefore generally cannot harvest the case.
In addition, Civil Code section 1785.13 independently bars a consumer credit reporting agency from reporting an unlawful detainer at all unless the landlord was the prevailing party, meaning a final judgment entered on the tenant’s default, on the landlord’s summary judgment motion, or after trial, or a written settlement agreement that expressly says the unlawful detainer may be reported.
Masking is not a criminal-style expungement: the case still exists, the parties and their lawyers can still access it, a court can order access on a showing of good cause, and information a landlord already knows or that a tenant discloses is unaffected.
If you are asked on an application whether you have been evicted, get advice from a tenant attorney before answering — masking limits public access to the court file, it does not erase the underlying history.
Even with these protections, some screening companies report masked or non-reportable cases anyway, which is where the FCRA dispute process below matters.
Why A California Eviction Record Follows You — and For How Long
An eviction case becomes a public court record the day it is filed — even if you won, even if it was dismissed, even if you moved out voluntarily before the hearing. Tenant screening companies copy these records in bulk and resell them to landlords, which is how a California eviction record from years ago can quietly sink a rental application today.
Under federal reporting rules these records generally stop appearing on screening reports after seven years, but the public court file itself can remain searchable far longer unless it is sealed.
That is why the filing itself, not just the outcome, is what matters — and why sealing laws are spreading state by state. Most landlords never read the court file; they read the one-line summary a screening company sells them. Getting the California eviction record sealed, corrected, or accurately described is what changes that one line.
Check Your California Eviction Record First
Before filing anything, find out what your California eviction record really looks like to a landlord. Search the online case index for the court where the eviction was filed, and request your file from the major tenant screening companies — you are entitled to it.
Tenants are often surprised in both directions: some discover the case they worry about was never reported, others find a case they had forgotten, or one that is not even theirs.
Knowing exactly what appears, and how it is described, tells you whether to pursue sealing, a dispute, or both.
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Screening reports are also where errors live. A dismissed case reported as an eviction, an old address matched to the wrong person, or a paid judgment still shown as owing are all fixable — and fixing the report is sometimes faster than any court process in California.
Your Federal Rights Against Tenant Screening Companies
Tenant screening companies are consumer reporting agencies under the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act, so a California tenant has these rights.
If you are denied housing, charged a higher deposit, or required a cosigner because of a screening report, the landlord must give you an adverse action notice naming the screening company, and you may request a free copy of that report from the company within 60 days of the adverse action (15 U.S.C. 1681j and 1681m).
You are also entitled to a free file disclosure from each nationwide specialty tenant screening agency once every 12 months.
To dispute, send a written dispute to the screening company identifying each wrong item — wrong person, dismissed case, case that never resulted in a judgment for the landlord, a case California law does not permit to be reported, or an outdated case — and attach proof such as a file-stamped dismissal, the docket, the settlement agreement, or your ID.
The company must reinvestigate and respond within 30 days (extended to 45 days if you send additional documents during the initial 30-day window), must forward your dispute to whoever furnished the data within 5 business days, and must delete or correct anything it cannot verify (15 U.S.C. 1681i).
Ask in writing that corrected results be sent to anyone who received a report in the past 6 months (2 years for employment reports).
Most non-conviction adverse items may only be reported for 7 years (15 U.S.C. 1681c). Send disputes by certified mail and keep copies.
If the company refuses to correct a verifiably wrong record, you may be able to complain to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau at consumerfinance.gov/complaint, to the California Attorney General at oag.ca.gov/report, or sue under the FCRA and the California Consumer Credit Reporting Agencies Act (Civil Code 1785.31), which allows actual damages, and attorney’s fees for a willful violation.
Many tenants can get an improperly reported eviction removed this way; check with a tenant attorney or legal aid about your specific report.
Timing matters more than tenants expect. If you are apartment-hunting right now, start the screening-report disputes today — they run on federal deadlines and cost nothing — while any California court process moves in parallel. If the move is months away, that is enough time for most sealing petitions, vacated judgments, or corrected reports to finish before a landlord ever pulls your California eviction record.
Worth watching in California: California’s protection is masking at filing, not petition-based sealing, so there is no expungement form and no tenant-initiated process — this is the main structural difference from the newer 2024-2025 sealing laws in Massachusetts, North Dakota, and Rhode Island.
The most recent change is AB 2304 (Lee), Chapter 711, Statutes of 2024, signed September 27, 2024 and effective January 1, 2025, which removed the 1993 SB 326 carve-out and extended masking to mobilehome park tenancies.
An earlier expansion attempt, AB 1795 (2019-2020), did not become law. Coverage gaps that remain in 2026: masking applies only to limited civil unlawful detainers, so an eviction filed as an unlimited civil case (more than 35000 demanded) is public from day one; and a case is public if the landlord obtained judgment against all defendants after a trial within 60 days of filing.
Whether any eviction-record sealing bill is currently pending in the 2025-2026 California legislative session: UNVERIFIED — check leginfo.legislature.ca.gov for current bill status. County-level pilot sealing programs in California: UNVERIFIED — none confirmed in the sources reviewed.
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You May Also Like
Official California Sources & Resources
- California Courts Self-Help: selfhelp.courts.ca.gov/eviction
- California Statute: leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?…
- U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development: hud.gov
- Cornell Legal Information Institute: law.cornell.edu/wex
Taking Control of Your California Eviction Record
A California eviction record is not a life sentence — it is a document, and documents can be sealed, corrected, or accurately explained. The tenants who struggle longest are usually the ones who never look at what their California eviction record actually says, so start by pulling the court file and your screening reports.
Whether California offers sealing or only the federal dispute route, acting on the California eviction record beats hoping landlords will not check — they almost always do. A short, honest cover letter to a prospective landlord explaining the circumstances can also do real work while the record process runs.
This California eviction record guide was last verified against official sources in August 2026. Sealing laws are changing fast — new states pass them every year, so re-check before relying on this page.
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Disclaimer: This guide is informational only and is not legal advice. Landlord-tenant laws change and vary by city and county within a state. Verify current rules with your state, your local court, or a free legal-aid office before acting. If you are facing eviction, contact a local tenant attorney or legal-aid organization right away.