California trespass laws treat unauthorized entry onto someone else’s property as both a crime and a civil wrong, with criminal penalties running from a $75 infraction fine for stepping onto posted farmland to three years in county jail when a credible threat precedes the entry. Most trespass charges are misdemeanors under Penal Code 602, punishable by up to six months in county jail and a fine of up to $1,000. Property owners can also sue for damages on top of any criminal case.
What Counts as Trespassing Under Penal Code 602
Penal Code 602 lists more than a dozen specific acts that qualify as criminal trespass. The common thread is entering or staying on someone else’s property without permission and doing something that interferes with the owner’s rights. The scenarios that get charged most often are straightforward:
- Damaging land or anything attached to it, including cutting down trees or destroying crops.
- Entering property, fenced or not, with the intent to interfere with a lawful business.
- Refusing to leave private property that isn’t open to the public after the owner, their agent, or a peace officer tells you to go.
- Moving into a building or onto real property without the owner’s consent.
Under subdivision (h), simply entering land where livestock or poultry are being raised and where “no trespassing” signs appear at least three per mile along the boundary is a misdemeanor, even without any intent to steal or damage anything.
Unless a specific subdivision says otherwise, a Penal Code 602 conviction is a standard misdemeanor. Under Penal Code 19, that means up to six months in county jail, a fine of up to $1,000, or both. Judges often impose probation instead of or alongside jail, particularly for first offenders, and a stay-away order covering the property is a common condition. A conviction stays on your record and shows up on employment and housing background checks.
Fenced, Posted, and Agricultural Land
Penal Code 602.8 covers a narrower situation than the main statute: walking onto farmland, fenced property, or land posted with “no trespassing” signs without written permission. This is the statute that governs most rural trespass cases in California, and it carries lighter penalties that escalate with repeat offenses on the same property.
- First offense: an infraction with a $75 fine.
- Second offense on the same land: an infraction with a $250 fine.
- Third or later offense on the same land: a misdemeanor, up to six months in county jail and a $1,000 fine.
For a first or second offense, you can forfeit bail rather than appear in court, and the case ends there. Fenced land and land under cultivation don’t need signs at all; the fence or the crops put you on notice. Unenclosed, uncultivated land has to be posted at specified intervals along the boundary and at every road or trail leading in.
Section 602.8 also carves out exceptions. It doesn’t apply to lawful labor union activity on agricultural land, to anyone exercising rights protected by the California or U.S. Constitution, to licensed process servers making lawful service, or to licensed land surveyors doing authorized work.
Entering Someone’s Home Without Permission
Penal Code 602.5 targets a situation that sits between ordinary trespass and burglary: entering a home, apartment, or other residence without permission but without the intent to commit a felony inside. If a felony intent were present, the charge would be burglary. Section 602.5 is always a misdemeanor.
The statute has two levels. Entering an unoccupied dwelling without consent is a standard misdemeanor. Entering or staying in a dwelling while a resident or authorized person is present is aggravated trespass, punishable by up to one year in county jail, a fine of up to $1,000, or both. The presence of someone in the home is what elevates the offense; the law treats an occupied home as a more serious intrusion even without proof of violent intent.
Trespass After a Threat
Penal Code 601 is the most serious trespass statute and the only one that reaches felony territory. It applies when someone makes a credible threat of serious bodily injury against another person and then, within 30 days, enters that person’s home or workplace without permission intending to carry out the threat. The threat has to be specific enough to put a reasonable person in fear for their own safety or that of their immediate family.
Section 601 is a wobbler, meaning prosecutors choose between misdemeanor and felony filing. As a misdemeanor, the maximum is one year in county jail, a fine of up to $2,000, or both. As a felony, sentencing runs 16 months, two years, or three years in county jail under Penal Code 1170(h), which sends most non-violent felonies to county facilities rather than state prison.
The 30-day window is what defines the statute. A threat on March 1 followed by an appearance at the target’s office on March 25 fits. If the person waits until April 15, Section 601 no longer applies and prosecutors would need a different charge.
Airport and Transit Facility Trespass
Penal Code 602 has its own schedule for airports, passenger vessel terminals, and public transit facilities. Under subdivision (u), knowingly entering a restricted operations area posted with authorized-personnel-only signs draws a $100 fine for a first offense. Refusing to leave when asked, or a second offense, bumps the penalty to up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine.
Subdivision (v) covers people who intentionally bypass security screening. A first offense is a fine of up to $500. A second is a misdemeanor with up to one year in jail and a $1,000 fine. If a first-time bypass causes an evacuation or delays or cancels flights, it goes straight to misdemeanor level with up to one year in jail.
Restitution and Civil Damages
When a trespass causes damage, California law requires the criminal court to order restitution covering the victim’s full economic loss. Under Penal Code 1202.4, that includes replacement cost or actual repair cost, plus attorney’s fees and collection costs the owner incurs. If the amount isn’t clear at sentencing, the judge sets a later restitution hearing. The obligation itself is mandatory. Restitution orders are enforceable as civil judgments and accrue 10% annual interest from the sentencing date.
A property owner can also file a separate civil suit. Civil Code 3334 sets the measure of damages: the value of the property’s use during the wrongful occupation (going back up to five years), the reasonable cost of restoring the property, and the owner’s costs to recover possession. The value of use is calculated as either reasonable rental value or the actual benefits the trespasser gained, whichever is greater. A genuine mistake of fact limits damages to reasonable rental value.
Even with no physical damage, a court can award nominal damages (typically a dollar) to establish that the owner’s rights were violated. That’s often enough to support an injunction barring the trespasser from returning, and violating an injunction opens the door to contempt proceedings.
Drone Flights Over Private Property
California doesn’t have a criminal statute making it a crime to fly a drone over someone’s land. Federal aviation rules govern airspace, and drone flights below 400 feet are generally allowed. What California does have is Civil Code 1708.8, which creates civil liability for physical invasion of privacy when someone enters the airspace above another person’s land without permission to capture images or recordings of private activities.
The exposure is significant: up to three times the victim’s actual damages, potential punitive damages, and a civil fine between $5,000 and $50,000. A violator who acted for commercial purposes can be ordered to hand over any proceeds. It’s no defense that no images were actually captured; entering the airspace with that intent is enough.
Defenses That Can Defeat a Charge
Not every trespass charge sticks. The right defense depends on the facts.
Consent or Implied Permission
If the owner gave permission, even informally, there’s no trespass. Consent can be implied by circumstances too. A retail store that’s open during business hours has impliedly consented to customers entering. The defense breaks down the moment the owner revokes permission and the person refuses to leave.
Necessity
California courts recognize a necessity defense when someone enters property to escape an imminent physical emergency and has no legal alternative. Fleeing a wildfire or an attacker into a neighbor’s yard is the classic example. The threat must be immediate and physical, and no other reasonable option can exist. A California appellate court rejected the defense where activists trespassed on an agricultural facility to document animal conditions, finding legal reporting alternatives were available.
Constitutional Activity
Section 602.8 expressly exempts people exercising rights protected by the state or federal Constitution. The reach of this defense is limited. The U.S. Supreme Court has held that shopping centers are private property and the First Amendment doesn’t create a right to leaflet or protest there over the owner’s objection. The California Constitution may reach further in some quasi-public spaces, and that boundary has generated substantial litigation.
Mistake of Fact
Most trespass offenses require willful entry, so a genuine and reasonable belief that you had permission or were on your own property can defeat the mental element. Boundary disputes are the usual setting. In civil cases, a good-faith mistake also caps damages at reasonable rental value.
When Long-Term Occupation Becomes Ownership
A trespass can turn into a legal ownership claim, but California makes it hard. Under Code of Civil Procedure 325, adverse possession requires five continuous years of occupation and every one of these conditions:
- The land is either protected by a substantial enclosure or usually cultivated and improved.
- The possession is open and hostile, putting the actual owner on reasonable notice.
- The possession is exclusive and continuous for the full five years.
- The occupant has timely paid all state, county, and municipal property taxes assessed against the land for the entire period, provable through certified county tax collector records.
The tax requirement is the wall most claims hit. Someone squatting in a vacant building who never pays property taxes has no path to ownership through adverse possession, however long they stay.