Property Management For Owners – Evicting A Tenant

The Notice of Termination is the first step in the tenant eviction process.

Tenants can be evicted with a 30 Day Notice if they are on a month to month lease. The form that you use is called a 30 Day Notice.

Laws differ in various states regarding what is an acceptable circumstance under which a 30 Day Notice can be served.

Subsidized housing programs may limit allowable reasons for eviction, and may require that the notice state one of these reasons.

Some cities are rent control cities where a landlord must prove that he is evicting a tenant for a “just cause”.

Some reasons for eviction are unlawful. For example, an eviction cannot be retaliatory or discriminatory.

There are three kinds of Notice of Termination forms that are most commonly used based on the reason for which you are evicting a tenant.

Pay Rent or Quit notices: This notice is given to a tenant who hasnt paid the rent. The Pay Rent or Quit notice tells the tenant to pay the rent or move out. Tenants are allowed anywhere from 3 to 30 days to pay the rent in full depending on your local and state laws.

There is a notice called Cure Or Quit which is given to a resident who has broken some condition as listed in the rental agreement. It tells the resident to fix the violation in a certain amount of time (usually set by your local laws) or be ready to be evicted from your rental unit.

Notice to Quit or Unconditional Quit notices: These forms are just basically kick out a tenant forms. They tell your tenant to vacate the premise without giving them a chance to fix a violation in the rental agreement, or even to pay. It basically just says GET OUT. Most states discourage the use of these notices unless tenants are conducting illegal activity, have repeatedly violated a significant term or condition of the rental contract, or have severely damaged the premises. Out of all the court cases I’ve seen where a tenant wins a significant judgement against a landlord (don’t worry, it’s very rare), it involved the use of this form. Don’t be lazy and use this form as a kind of “catch all” form.

Now keep in mind that after serving one of these notices, a tenant is not automatically evicted if he refuses to leave.

You need to start the eviction process.

You file the required forms with your local court and arrange to have the tenant properly served with a summons and complaint. The complaint is usually a pre-printed form, and you can only seek unpaid rent and actual damages. Any attempt to demand late charges or other fees can cause your complaint to be denied.

One of the biggest mistakes owners make is right here. Never just put this notice in the mail or slip it under the tenant’s door. You must have an authorized person physically deliver the legal notice to the tenant face to face. Every state has specific rules and procedures as to what exactly constitutes proper legal service, including who can serve notices, the method of delivery, the specific parties who can be legally served, and the amount of time the tenant has to respond to the legal notice. Check with your local attorney for the requirements in your area.

By law, a trial date is set, and your tenant has a certain number of days to file an answer to your summons and complaint.

What usually happens is that when the tenant gets the legal summons and complaint, it scares him into vacating your rental unit because he knows he violated some condition of the lease agreement.

Often a resident will want to settle with you out of court. That’s fine if you both come to an agreement. Just don’t forget to dismiss your eviction action with the court.

Even if the tenant ignores your summons and complaint and does not file an answer with the court, the eviction process still moves forward without the tenant.

If the tenant does not show, this is called an uncontested eviction. The court will still hear your case but without the tenant present to argue your charges, you will win. Just make sure you bring all your paperwork and provide the court with good documentation of every single one of your charges.

4. If your tenant files an answer and appears at court, each party receives the opportunity to present its evidence before the court makes a ruling.

The court calls this a contested eviction. If you have all your paperwork and proof in order and professionally present yourself and the facts, you generally will win. But if you have acted illegally to evict the tenant you will not.

5. If you win the eviction lawsuit, you must present the judgment to local law enforcement.

Your local police will then give the tenant one last notice of a pending lock out. A lock out is when the police physically remove the tenant and his possessions from your rental unit. You need to meet the police at your rental unit and immediately have the locks changed once you get legal possession of your rental unit.

Use an attorney to handle the eviction process. The filing and serving of eviction actions must be done in a very precise way. One little mistake can result in delays or even a lost case. Even if the tenant clearly violated your rental contract.

There are many eviction and collection law firms that specialize exclusively in legally evicting tenants.

If you hire an eviction and collection law firm, they do everything for you. They will file all notices with the court, properly serve the tenant, and even call the police to schedule the lock out. They have their own collections department that will collect on any past due rent and deal with negatively impacting a tenants credit report until they do pay you and the law firm in full. Often such an eviction and collection law firm charges $300 upfront and then splits what they collect from the tenant with you half and half: they get half and you get half. This service often more than pays for itself in terms of your time and stress. They speed the eviction along and most often they will evict your tenant in only 30 days saving you weeks and sometimes months worth of lost rental income. A good eviction and collection law firm or property management company is worth their weight in gold.