Property Owner Guide – Handling A Tenant Eviction
To evict a tenant you first must give them a Notice of Termination.
Tenants who are on a month to month lease can be evicted with a 30 days or 60 days written notice. In some states 60 days is required while in others only 30 days is required. You need to check your locality. The form you use is called either a 30 Day Notice or a 60 Day Notice.
First though, you need to check your local laws for what is an acceptable reason to serve a 30 Day Notice.
Subsidized housing programs often limit what you can evict a tenant for. They usually have forms where you have to list the reason for the eviction.
Some cities have rent controls in place that require “just cause” in order to evict and the landlord’s 30 Day Notice must specifically state the reason for which he is terminating tenancy.
An eviction can never be retaliatory or discriminatory in nature.
Forms very from state to state but there are basically three types of Notice of Termination forms you use, depending on your circumstance, to evict tenants.
Pay Rent Or Quit is a notice given to a tenant who has not paid the rent. This notice instructs the tenant to either pay the rent or pack up and move. Tenants are then given anywhere from 3 days to 30 days to pay the rent depending on your local laws.
Cure or Quit notices: This notice is given to tenants whove violated one of the conditions you listed in your rental contract. It tells your tenant to cure the violation in a limited number of days (determined by state law) and vacate the premises, or be subject to an eviction action.
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.
If your resident chooses not to correct a violation of the rental agreement or to pay you rent, she is not instantly evicted.
You must go through the formal eviction process.
File the correct forms with the court and have the resident properly served with a summons and complaint. The complaint needs to only have unpaid rent on it. You must not put late charges or other fees on it. If you do, it is likely that the court will deny your complaint.
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.
At this stage, most residents will vacate your rental. The legal summons and complaint tells them you know the law and you know what you are doing. They know that they broke some condition of the rental agreement they signed with you when they moved in.
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.
If your tenant doesnt file an answer in a timely manner, the eviction action proceeds to court without the tenant.
This is called an uncontested eviction. The court requires you to prove your case, but the tenant isnt there to respond to or deny your charges. Typically, you can easily prevail in this situation, as long as you have good documentation.
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. After you win the eviction suit with the court, you then give the court judgment to your local police department.
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.
I recommend you have a property management company or an attorney handle the eviction process. The filing and serving of various forms in the eviction process must be done in a precise way. One mistake can delay the entire action even if your tenant clearly is in the wrong.
You want to use an “eviction collection” law firm that specializes in property management law.
Eviction and collection attorneys will handle everything for you. You just turn the eviction process over to them and they do the rest. They do all the filings with the court, the correct serving of your tenant with the appropriate legal notices, and they even call the police and schedule a date for the lock out to take place. They even have their own collections department where they collect on past due rent and have the power to negatively impact a tenants credit report until he does pay you.
I hope this free advice helps you with dealing with the eviction process of your tenant. Should you require extra property management services and if you are a property owner in Fresno or Madera County in California see property management Fresno CA
