THE UNLAWFUL DETAINER TRIAL: LAND MINES OF DELAY TACTICS AND AFFIRMATIVE DEFENSES Many manufactured housing community owners and managers have been through the unlawful detainer process, but not all of them have encountered just how different and difficult one unlawful detainer action can be from another regarding time frames, discovery and even trial. If you are lucky, your encounter with an unlawful detainer action took approximately 3-4 weeks and ended nicely in a default judgment without the need to go to court. This article will walk you through the non-default unlawful detainer action and address some of the options that resident/tenants have to delay the process and to make the unlawful detainer action a long, expensive experience. In discussing the difficult unlawful detainer trial, this article will address the delay tactics taken by residents (“resident defendants”) and/or their attorneys and the affirmative defenses that can be raised to complicate the issues, as well as post-trial motions and appeals that delay returning possession of the premises to the community owner (“owner”). SUMMARY PROCEEDING The unlawful detainer trial was intended by the legislature to be a “summary eviction” proceeding. This means that all aspects of the lawsuit are to be expedited (shortened) from the regular civil litigation time frames. For example, in a non-summary civil lawsuit, the defendant has 30 days to answer the complaint, but only 5 days to answer in an unlawful detainer action. The trial in a non-summary civil lawsuit may take a year (or longer) to get to trial, as opposed to setting the trial within 20 days of the case being at issue (all parties answered or defaulted) in an unlawful detainer trial.