Why this matters: Landlords and property managers managing an eviction need to avoid ambiguously worded documents so tenants comprehend what will take place. To increase understanding for California residential and commercial tenants, an accessible civil summons form will be available in 2027.
One summons governs all evictions
An official notice posted — nailed — to the door of a tenant-occupied unit needs to communicate a lot. During an eviction process, important information is provided by the landlord or their property manager to their commercial or residential tenant. This includes the technical next steps to take place for the tenant and manifesting a sense of urgency.
To do so, landlords and property managers rely on summons in a civil action issued by the court where the action is filed to prompt the tenant to respond timely and appropriately.
In addition to current tenant protections already in place, Assembly Bill 863 tasks the Judicial Council more broadly to create a single summons form for use in any civil action. The summons form details all provisions impacting the resident (or defendant in general) and contains translations in multiple languages. [CCP §412.20(d)]
The languages required in the new summons form include:
- English,
- Spanish,
- Chinese,
- Tagalog,
- Vietnamese, and
- Korean. [CCP §412.20(d)]
The accessible and understandable single summon form will be available on the Judicial Council’s website by January 1, 2027. [CCP §412.20(d)]
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