Tips For Handling Evictions
As a landlord, one of the responsibilities you may have from time to time involves evicting tenants that are not paying their rent or following rules of the lease. Evicting a tenant is probably not your favorite part of owning a rental property business, but you will encounter times when you must do this. Here are several tips to help you understand how to property evict one of your tenants.
Make sure you have a legitimate reason
When you decide to evict a person, it is important to have a legitimate reason for this. While you can evict a person simply to regain possession of the unit, this would still be a reason. Having a reason is important because you will need to explain the reason to the tenant, and you will also have to explain it to the judge if the eviction case goes that far. Some common reasons for evicting tenants include failure to pay rent and failure to comply with rules. There are a lot of other reasons, too, though.
Give the tenant a warning with an explanation
Once you make the decision to evict, the next step is to give the tenant a written warning about your intent to evict. This warning letter should be mailed through certified mail, simply to make sure the tenant gets it, and it should explain several things. First, it should explain that you are planning on evicting the tenant. Secondly, it should tell the tenant why you are planning to do this. Finally, it should state what the tenant would need to do to stop this from happening. You can also typically ask the tenant to willingly move out of the unit; however, the tenant does not legally have to do this until the judge orders it.
File a motion with the court
If the tenant does not make the situation right, you can go ahead and file a motion with the court to evict. This will require going to court and explaining the situation to the judge, and the judge will then decide whether to agree with you or not.
Do not wait too long
The other thing you should realize is that even if you want to give your tenants the benefit of the doubt, you really should not wait too long to begin the eviction's process, as it takes time to complete.
If you do not want to handle this part of your rental property business, or if you need help with other areas of the business, you can hire a realty property management company to take over these duties.
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