The first stage in the eviction process is to serve the tenant with what is called a Notice of Termination form.

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.

Laws differ in various states regarding what is an acceptable circumstance under which a 30 Day Notice can be served.

Subsidized housing programs may limit allowable reasons for eviction, and may require that the notice state one of these reasons.

Some rent control cities require “just cause” for eviction, and the landlords notice must state the reason for termination.

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.

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 now need to start the formal eviction process.

You need to file the proper forms with your local court and have the tenant correctly served with a summons and complaint. The form you use for the complaint can be provided by the court and when you fill it out, you must not put on it anything but unpaid rent or actual property damages. You can NOT put late charges or other fees on this form. If you do, it is likely that your complaint will be denied by the court.

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.

The court will set a date to hear your case and your tenant will be given a certain amount of time to file an answer to your summons and 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 your tenant settles informally, you must officially dismiss your court eviction action.

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 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.

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.

The local police will contact the tenant and tell them to move immediately by a certain date of face a lock out. A lock out is when the police come to your rental unit and physically remove the tenant and all her belongings from your rental. Make sure you have a locksmith meet the police at your rental and change the locks as soon as you regain legal possession of your rental.

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.

Find a law firm that specializes in property management law with an “eviction and collection” legal department.

If you hire an eviction and collection law firm, they do everything for you. They will file all notices with the court, properly serve the tenant, and even call the police to schedule the lock out. They have their own collections department that will collect on any past due rent and deal with negatively impacting a tenants credit report until they do pay you and the law firm in full. Often such an eviction and collection law firm charges $300 upfront and then splits what they collect from the tenant with you half and half: they get half and you get half. This service often more than pays for itself in terms of your time and stress. They speed the eviction along and most often they will evict your tenant in only 30 days saving you weeks and sometimes months worth of lost rental income. A good eviction and collection law firm or property management company is worth their weight in gold.

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