The Notice of Termination is the first step in the tenant eviction process.
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.
A 30 Day Notice can not be served on a tenant under some circumstances.
Exercise caution when it comes to subsidized housing programs. These programs often limit the reasons for which a tenant can be evicted.
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.
Some reasons for eviction are unlawful. For example, an eviction cannot be retaliatory or discriminatory.
There are basically 3 types of Notice of Termination forms that you can use to evict a tenant.
The notice called Pay Rent Or Quit is sent to a resident who has not paid rent. This notice commands the tenant to pay his rent or move. The resident is given anywhere from 3 days to 30 days to pay the rent depending on your local laws.
The notice called Cure Or Quit is given to a tenant who has violated a condition of tenancy listed on the lease agreement. It instructs the tenant to fix the violation in a certain amount of time, which is usually determined by state law, or face an eviction.
There is a notice called a Notice to Quit or Unconditional Quit which just tells the resident to move without giving them a chance to fix anything or to pay anything. This form basically just commands the tenant to pack his things up and get out by a certain date. I recommend you never use this notice. In the few court cases that a tenant has won against a property owner, it was because the owner served the tenant with this notice. You should only use this notice if the resident has severely damaged your rental unit or has committed some illegal act like robbery or murder. Never be lazy and use this form for all of your evictions.
If your tenant doesnt fix the violation, pay the rent, or leave the rental property after receiving the appropriate legal notice, he isnt automatically 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.
Most new owners make a mistake on how they serve the tenant. Do not just slip this notice under the door or stick it in the mail. You need to follow your state’s rules for what constitutes correct legal service. There is the age of the person serving the notice, the method of delivery, and so on. Check with your local attorney for the laws of service in your city.
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.
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.
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. Should your resident file a response with the court in the correct amount of time, and appear in court on the date given, you each will have the chance to present your evidence and then the court will make a ruling.
This is called a contested eviction. If you are well prepared will all your supporting evidence and paperwork you will usually win. But if you evicted the tenant due to discrimination or retaliation, you will not win.
5. Once you win the eviction lawsuit, you then give the judgment to the local police.
The local law enforcement gives the tenant one final notice before going to the rental unit and physically removing the tenant and her possessions. This is called a “lock out”. Arrange to have someone meet the law enforcement officers at the rental property at the designated time and have the locks changed after you receive legal possession of the 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.
There are many eviction and collection law firms that specialize exclusively in legally evicting tenants.
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.