by Steve Zappa
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.
A 30 Day Notice can not be served on a tenant under some circumstances.
Subsidized housing programs may limit allowable reasons for eviction, and may require that the notice state one of these reasons.
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.
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.
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.
The Unconditional Quit or Notice To Quit notice instructs your tenant to move out in a certain amount of time without giving the tenant a chance to fix the violation in the lease agreement or even to pay the rent. You must be careful with this notice. This notice frankly says just get out. Most states do not want you to use this notice unless the tenant has broken the law in some way such as selling drugs from the apartment or has totally damaged your rental unit. Do not be lazy and use this form as just a “catch all” form. In the few cases where a tenant has won against a landlord, it involved the landlord using this 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 now need to start the formal 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.
The biggest mistakes property owners make is in how they serve the tenant. You can not just put it in the mail or shove it under the door. You need to go through a court approved serving agency in most cities. Each state has its own rules for what is considered the correct legal serving of documents and forms. If you do not know the law in your area, you should contact a local attorney’s office.
By law the court will set a trial date. Your resident will be given a certain amount of days to file his own answer to your complaint.
Most often the legal summons and complaint scares the tenant as they know that theyve materially breached their rental contract and voluntarily leave the premise. Or sometimes tenants settle with you out of court.
If the tenant settles with you out of court, that’s fine but you must officially dismiss your eviction with the court.
If your resident thinks he can ignore your summons and complaint he is mistaken. The court will move forward with the eviction process without the resident.
The court calls this an uncontested eviction. The court asks you to state your case. The tenant is not there to deny your charges. You will usually win as long as you provide the court with good documentation and paperwork.
4. If the tenant files an answer and appears at court, you each will be given a turn to make your case before the court makes the final 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.
With an eviction collection law firm, you simply turn the tenant over to them and they do the rest. They handle filing with the court, serving the tenant the legal notices of pending court action, and they even call the police and schedule a date for the lock out. All you have to do is show up at your home for the lock out so you can change the locks. Next, they have their own collections department where they keep calling the tenant to work out payment arrangements and put a negative mark on the tenants credit report until he does pay.
About the Author:
Written By Steve Zappa. May this article help you with dealing with legally evicting your non-paying tenant. If you require professional property management services and if you are a property owner in California’s Central Valley please visit
Madera property management
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