How to Evict Tenants?

Jun 16, 2022

Being a landlord is hard, meaning that besides having to deal with various responsibilities, problems, and complications, you’ll also have to talk with tenants and decide which ones are responsible enough to keep your property safe and undamaged. From time to time, it is highly possible that you’ll have to evict tenants. There are different reasons why you should think about evicting your tenants, which we’ll gladly describe in the following text below. However, few landlords are familiar with the subject, meaning that evicting tenants isn’t an easy job and will require a waste of your time and energy to deal with the issue.
So, if you want to read how to evict tenants, check out the following text below.

Reasons for Evicting Tenants

We understand that no landlord wants to evict his tenants, but in some cases, this step is necessary because no other option is possible. Waiting too long to evict a tenant can result in various complications and unplanned expenses. How to decide whether you should evict your tenant, and what are the main reasons to do so?

Rent

The most common reason to evict a tenant is nonpayment of rent, and unfortunately, this happens very often. Even the best tenants often experience difficulties that influence their ability to honor their obligations. The most common reason why this happens is their family situation, loss of working hours, a job loss, a medical condition, or frequent delays. However, in business, you might not have enough space to look out for every tenant living on your property, meaning that one way or the other, you’ll have to evict them.

Professionals

What is a professional tenant? A professional tenant is a person that rents your property with the sole intention of avoiding paying rent. Even though this tenant may have already paid money upfront, such as the deposit and first month’s rent, a professional tenant will probably not pay another dime. These professionals know exactly how the entire eviction process works and is usually an expert in avoiding the law and searching for loopholes in order to live rent-free. A major red flag when dealing with professional tenants is the fact that they usually want to move in as fast as possible because they know that there is a certain time lag between the most recent eviction showing up on their rental history report meaning that they are in a race to move in before public records come to light.

Illegal Business

Using your property for gambling, prostitution, or drug activity are all examples of illegal business that your tenant has no right to perform, which is a solid ground for eviction. If you allow illegal activity in your unit to continue, you can get yourself into trouble by allowing illegal activity in your property, and we highly advise you to contact a legal attorney that might help you with this issue.

Your Property

An Evicted Tenant

Tenants that damage your property beyond the usual wear and tear should also be evicted from your property. Punched holes in the walls or broken windows can be easily discovered during a routine property inspection. Although some states allow the landlord to use the tenants` deposit to pay for any possible damage, in most cases, the tenants’ security deposit is not nearly enough. Why? Because states usually limit the amount of security deposit a landlord can ask for and are usually no more than two months’ rent. So, if you notice that the tenants’ behavior in terms of destroying your property is over the line, we recommend evicting those tenants.

How To Evict Tenants?

Although the laws differ from state to state, there are typically a couple of rules you should follow in order to perform the process in the best possible manner:

Review The Laws

Before beginning the process of eviction, we recommend checking the law in your state:

  • Talk with a real estate attorney.
  • Consult with your NYC property management agency if you have one.
  • Visit some legal resource websites to check the landlord-tenant laws in your location.
  • Contact the local municipality and check for laws.

Having a Reason

Another important step in the evicting process is that after checking the laws, you should write down a good and valid reason why you want to evict your tenant. The most common violations are owning a pet (if it’s not permitted on your property), property damage, illegal activity, illegal roommate, etc.

Talk With The Tenant

In certain situations, it might be a good idea to speak with the tenant and see if they are maybe willing to leave without actually being evicted. Why? Evicting a tenant can be very time-consuming and in certain cases, expensive, so most good tenants simply don’t want a bad mark on their report.

A Written Notice

A Final Notice In The Mailbox

Next, you should serve the tenant with a written eviction notice that depending on the state you’re located in, should contain:

  • A quit or a pay notice which states that the rent is past due and provides the tenant a certain period of time to try to pay the past due, including any possible late fees, or immediately leave the premises.
  • A quit or cure notice if a tenant violates other provisions of the lease besides due rent like owning a pet, a roommate, or loud parties.
  • An unconditional notice requires that the tenant leaves your property immediately, which is mostly used in severe cases.

Suing

You can sue for an eviction if the eviction process is getting out of hand, and for that purpose, we recommend getting a real estate attorney to help you with the process.

Remember that, if possible, it is always best to take things easy and try to come up with an agreement instead of dealing with the issue in an argumentative matter. Issues with evictions are one of the disadvantages of self-managed real estate properties, which a management agency can help you with. So, if you are in the rental business, contact us and start enjoying all the benefits of an apartment management company. In any case, we hope you found some useful information in our article and best of luck with your tenants.

0 Comments