How to Evict a Tenant - Serving them a 30 day notice to quit

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

30 day notice to quit
city filing fees
court date
money for fees
patience

Step 1

The first thing to do when evicting a tenant is to be calm and stay professional. Do not get mean, do not threaten your tenant, and do not give them a reason to get upset at you. This is a very touchy thing to do, and if you have gotten to the point in your relationship where the tenant is not paying you or where they are causing issues at your rental property, then you need to follow a very specific and exact eviction process. I have had tenants threaten me, trash my property, and even sue me over evicting them - staying calm and professional in every situation is the most important thing to remember. This article will discuss the Summary Proceeding process for evicting a tenant that has violated your lease agreement by serving your tenant with a 30 day notice to quit. Expect it to last at least 30-50 days because you will need to get the city court involved.
Step 2

I hope that you have a city approved rental property. If you do, then good, move on - If you do not, you are going to have to apply for a temporary rental permit from the city - which costs a bit of money, and have your property inspected for a rental license. This can happen while you are waiting to evict the tenant, but you really need to have the property approved and licensed before you rent anyway! Look at the link in my resources to learn how to get a rental license or visit this link here:
http://www.ehow.com/how_4559543_become-landlord-landlord-license.html
Step 3

If your tenant is not paying you your rent, then there is a different eviction process you need to follow which I cover in another article. We are focusing on evicting a tenant for violating or breaking any of the agreed upon articles in your lease. Try first to let them know that you are not happy with what is going on and find out why they are violating the terms of your lease. By discussing it with them first, you should be able to resolve the issue.
Step 4

If you have talked to your tenant and they are still violating your lease agreement, then you have two options at this point.
1) If they are still paying you rent, then you can deal with the issue until your lease term expiresm and then they will be gone.
2) You can go to the city court house and file a 30 day notice to quit.
Step 5

If you decide to evict your tenant, go down to the city courthouse - civil division, landlord/tenant office - and let them know that you would like to evict a tenant from your property for violation of your lease agreement. Tell them that you do not want to try to resolve the issue with them and you simply want them out of your property, and you would like to fill out an eviction notice. Most courts have their own eviction notices, but they should include the following information to be considered valid:
1) Tenants Name
2) Address or rental property description
3) Reason(s) for the eviction
4) Time to take remedial action - 30 days from file date
5) Date
6) Landlord Signature
Step 6

Once you have filled out the official 30 day court eviction notice, you will need to serve the tenant with this notice. There are a few ways that you can serve the tenant with the notice. First you can hand deliver it to your tenant. Secondly, you can leave at your rental unit with a member of the household requesting that it get to the tenant. Thirdly, you can mail it to your tenant. I recommend that you physically hand-deliver it to your tenant because the 30 days will begin the following day. If you feel like there will be a conflict, you can have the police come with you.
Step 7

Once the notice has been served, go back to the court house to have them physically sign off for the fact that it has been served. Now, this is a pain because you are going to potentially lose an entire month and 1/2 worth of rent. I had a couple of tenants that I had to do this to, and the eviction process ran about a total of 40 days. In the end, I was awarded all money owed, and they were evicted - I never saw the money, but they were thrown out of my property, so there is a light at the end of this mess.
Step 8

At this point, you could be quite a few days into the eviction process, so I hope you planned ahead so that you will not be getting into next month and losing more money. If your tenant has not paid you, has not corrected their lease violation, or has not moved out by this point, then you just have to wait for the 30 days to expire and take them back to court to get them evicted officially.
Step 9

Once your 30 days is up, go back to the city courthouse and let them know the tenant is still in your property and causing problems, and that you would like to commence a lawsuit - known as the Summary Proceeding. You will have to fill out the following:
1) Complaint
2) Include a copy of your "notice of eviction"
3) Include a copy of your lease
4) Fill out the summons

The court clerk will then set up a court date to have your case heard in front of a judge. Once again, the papwork will have to be delivered to the tenant.
Step 10

This time, the paperwork (copies of all listed in Step 9) will have to be delivered to the tenant in two ways. 1) By certified mail, and 2) Hand Delivery or posting to the door at the residence.
Step 11

All that is left to do now is to show up at your Court Hearing. When you go to court - if it gets this far - you really do not have much to say except that the tenant was in violation of the lease, you do not want them there anymore, and you would like them evicted. Bring proof of the lease violations just in case you need to defend yourself. The city lawyer may want to try and resolve the issue without going in front of a judge - BUT I RECOMMEND THAT YOU GO IN FRONT OF THE JUDGE. The last time I tried to work it out with the tenants and the city attorney, the tenants still failed to pay me or resolve their lease violations, and I had to deal with them for another 15 days until the city booted them out on the street. SO - go in front of the judge, and let them know that you want them out of your property.
Step 12

If at this point you have money owed to you, you can try to get the money owed to you, but unfortunately, the tenants always get away without paying you - so as one judge told me - be happy that you are getting rid of these people and move on! But, you can still get the money owed put against their credit, and even get their wages or income garnished. It really just depends on how far you want to go.
Step 13

After the court ruling, the tenants will have probably about two-three days to get out of your property. If they still refuse to move, go to the court-house immediately, and the will send an officer over to physically evict them. DO NOT PHYSICALLY TRY TO MOVE YOUR TENANT OR THEIR PROPERTY - IT IS AGAINST THE LAW!
Step 14

Record all of your loses against your business expenses and write these off at tax-time. Clean up your property (because they will trash it), change the locks, and get the unit rented out as fast as possible - now DO NOT RENT TO PEOPLE LIKE THAT AGAIN, AND CHECK THEIR BACKGROUND TO AVOID THE ISSUE AGAIN - see my article here:

http://www.ehow.com/how_4477631_prescreen-potential-tenants-credit.html

Comments

kimmij said

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on 6/22/2009 Oh! I meant to add: All of the dog poop that the bad tenant's have left in your house should be disposed of as follows...

With the loser's clean socks, pick up the poop and stuff it into the pockets of clean jeans and jackets. Press hard. Fold everything back up and feel some sense of vindication. Repeat. And the rotting meat they've left in your fridge? Expensive leather coats make great receptacles for garbage.

on 6/22/2009 Your article about how to evict a tenant is sooooo thorough. However, I've found that the best way is to gently and with great care toss all of their stuff into the yard and change the locks. Nothing gets the point across like abruptness. ;-) FIVE STARS and "recommended".

tinker2elvis said

on 5/13/2009 Very well written, varies a bit from State to State, usually before the constable gets there to put them out they are gone. Never had any sue me, trash the place, oh yes, have people just to handle that, the last 4 years have run smooth, ever since I took everything over and divorced my late ex-husband. 5 stars!