Many tenants call us asking for help filing a “hardship motion” or a “Motion for Relief from Forfeiture.”

Hardship Extensions: After a tenant looses in court, it is possible to go into court to get a few more days to move. These motions are rarely granted. I have only been successful a handful of times in
20 years of practice. In all of those cases I was helping a very elderly person (80 +), with disabilities (blind, in wheel chair), who had found new housing and just needed a few days to avoid temporary homelessness.

Motion for Relief from Forfeiture: California Civil Code Section ENTER provides that a tenant can ask
a judge for “relief from forfeiture” of their rental agreement (i.e. another chance to stay as a tenant)
if all of the following apply:

1. The breach occurred through no fault of the tenants (your money was stolen, you had an unavoidable crisis);
2. The tenant will suffer hardship if evicted. See below for how hardship is defined in these cases.
3. You can make the landlord whole and the landlord will not be harmed in any way. See below for definition.

Hardship: Because all evictions create a hardship, the courts interpret this statute to require a hardship that is very, very, very extreme. These motions are rarely granted. In 20 years of practice
I have had only a handful granted. In all of them my client was extremely elder,
or extremely disabled and paying an extremely low rent controlled or subsidized rent. While I think
that a judge has discretion to grant these motions in every case where a tenant is paying a low rent controlled or subsidized rent, because the statute says that the decision is at the “discretion” of the trial judge, there is nothing that can reasonably be done if the judge denies the motion.

Generally, once you have lost at trial, unless there is a clear, unequivocal, error … the notice is clearly defective and the judge clearly made a bad ruling and, therefore, there is a reason to APPEAL the judge’s decision, …. don’t waste time or money filing post trial motions. The chances
of success are minimal.