What Renters Need to Know About Evictions Before Moving In

When renters don’t uphold their end of a lease or rental agreement—by failing to pay rent or violating the lease—landlords have the right to remove the tenant from the property. This doesn’t mean that landlords can simply change the locks and not allow the renter back into the unit. Rather, landlords must follow the procedures laid out by landlord-tenant laws and ordinances. Every state has eviction laws on its books, as do many cities and counties. Here’s an outline of the typical steps that must occur for a landlord to legally evict a tenant.

Leases and Rental Agreements Are Two Different Legal Contracts

As a renter, you need to know whether you have signed a lease or a rental agreement with your landlord. Both of these are legal contracts for renting a property, but they give landlords and tenants very different rights and responsibilities.

What Are Rental agreements?

These are contracts to rent a property for a short amount of time—usually a month. You’ll often hear rental agreements referred to as “month-to-month” arrangements. Both the tenant and the landlord can make changes to rental agreements—including ending the arrangement—after they give the legal amount of notice required under state law. Rental agreements renew automatically unless one of the parties gives the required notice to end the agreement.

What is a Lease?

A lease is a contract to rent a property for a longer amount of time, such as a year. Neither the tenant nor the landlord can make changes to the lease while it is in effect without a written agreement to do so. This point is key: Both you and your landlord are bound by its terms—such as the amount of rent to be paid, the pet policy, and the guest policy—until the lease expires. Leases typically do not renew automatically.

Termination vs. Eviction

Although many landlords, tenants, and even lawyers use the term “eviction” when talking about kicking a tenant out of a rental, eviction is actually just one step—often the last one—in the process of removing a tenant.

Before a landlord can remove a tenant, the landlord must terminate the tenancy. Under the law in most states, this is accomplished by serving the tenant with one of the following notices:

• Pay rent or quit notice. This notice informs tenants who didn’t pay rent that they have a certain amount of time (usually three to 14 days) to pay up (plus any late fees or charges) or move out of (quit) the rental. In some states, landlords aren’t required to give tenants a second chance—they can just tell the tenant to leave (see discussion of unconditional quit notices below). In other states, landlords must give the tenant an opportunity to pay up if it’s the tenant’s first missed rent payment; after that, the landlord may serve an unconditional quit notice for any subsequent missed payments.
• Cure or quit notice. Landlords can use this notice to give tenants a choice to either stop or remedy a lease violation, or move out. Like the pay rent or quit notice, the tenant has a certain amount of time to fix the situation. Under most state laws, when tenants violate the same term(s) multiple times, landlords don’t have to give the tenants a second chance to remedy.
• Unconditional quit notice. Unconditional quit notices are the harshest of all: Landlords use these to tell tenants that they must move out within a certain number of days. Most states require landlords to give tenants to remedy whatever problem has prompted the notice before they serve an unconditional quit notice, but there are a few states where landlords can use them immediately after rent isn’t paid or a violation has occurred. Most state unconditional quit notice laws allow landlords to use this type of notice when tenants break the law on the property or threaten property or people.

Landlords must serve these notices using the procedures dictated by state law. If tenants don’t fix the problem or move out by the deadline mentioned in the notice, the landlord can then take the next step in the eviction process: filing an eviction lawsuit.

When Can Landlords Terminate a Lease or Rental Agreement?

One of the best things about a lease is that it guarantees tenants the right to remain at the rental for a certain amount of time—unless the tenant does something that the law recognizes as a reason for termination. In most places, the following are grounds for your landlord to terminate your tenancy:

• Failure to pay rent. If you don’t pay your rent on the date it is due, you have violated your lease. Your landlord then has the right to terminate your tenancy by serving you either a pay rent or quit notice or an unconditional quit notice (which notice is allowed depends on state law). Don’t count on having a grace period to pay your rent—although some states require short grace periods (such as 3 days), most don’t. If your state doesn’t require landlords to give tenants a grace period, look at your lease to see if it provides for one. If not, your rent is late as of the day after it’s due.
• Violation of the lease. Most of the time, landlords can terminate tenancies for substantial or repeat violations of the lease. For example, having a pet even though your landlord has a no-pets policy would be a substantial violation that could justify terminating your tenancy. As another example, having one loud party might not warrant terminating your tenancy, but multiple loud parties might be enough.
• Violation of the law. No landlord wants tenants who commit illegal acts at the rental or who pose a risk to people or property. For that reason, most states allow landlords to terminate the tenancy of such rule breakers either immediately or with very short notice.

Every state’s laws on the reasons landlords can terminate a tenancy—as well as the procedures landlords must follow—are different. You can research your state’s termination and eviction procedures online, or contact a local landlord-tenant attorney for advice.

What are the Steps in the Eviction Process?

Here’s a step-by-step summary of the steps leading up to and through eviction:

1. Breach of lease or rental agreement. The tenant does something that legally justifies the landlord’s terminating the lease or rental agreement. For example, the tenant doesn’t pay rent, or has a dog in the rental despite a no-pets policy.
2. Landlord serves termination notice. The type of notice the landlord can use depends on state law, as discussed above. After the notice is served, one of the following situations will likely occur:
   • Tenant is given the opportunity to cure the issue, and does. For example, the tenant pays the rent owed before the deadline in the notice. When this occurs, the process ends here and there is no eviction.
   • Tenant is given the opportunity to cure the issue, but moves out instead. When a “cure or quit” notice is used, and the tenant chooses to quit (move out), the landlord cannot proceed with an eviction suit. The landlord can, however, use the security deposit to cover unpaid rent or, if it’s not enough, sue the tenant for any rent due or damage to the premises.
   • Tenant is given an unconditional quit notice, and moves out by deadline. In this situation, the landlord cannot proceed with an eviction suit, but may use the security deposit to cover or, if it’s not enough, sue the tenant for any rent due or damage to the premises.
   • Tenant ignores notice, and doesn’t cure (if possible) or quit by deadline. When this happens, the landlord can move on to the next step in the eviction process.
3. Landlord files an eviction lawsuit. In most states, once the deadline in the notice has expired, the landlord can move forward with filing an eviction suit. Where and how to file is different in every state, but is usually accomplished by filing a complaint with the appropriate court.
4. Landlord serves notice of the lawsuit on the tenant. The landlord must make the attempts required by law to serve notice of the suit on the tenant in the manner outlined by state law.
5. Tenant has opportunity to respond to landlord’s lawsuit. The tenant will have the opportunity to respond to the landlord’s complaint (usually accomplished by filing an answer).
6. The court holds a hearing or a trial on the eviction lawsuit. Typically, the hearing is two weeks to a month after the complaint is filed. If the tenant didn’t respond to the landlord’s complaint, the court might enter a default judgment against the tenant, meaning that the landlord automatically wins the suit. If the landlord made any mistakes in serving or filing the lawsuit, the court will likely kick the case out and not order an eviction of the tenant. If the tenant did respond, the court will hear both sides’ arguments at a hearing or trial.
7. The court rules on the eviction suit. When a court rules in the tenant’s favor, it means that the tenant can remain in the rental. The tenant might be entitled to court costs and fees depending on the lease and state law. If the landlord wins, the court will order an eviction (and possibly that the tenant pay the landlord’s court costs and fees). Courts usually rule quickly on eviction matters—often at the hearing or trial, or shortly thereafter.
8. The landlord arranges the eviction. In most states, the landlord can present the court’s order of eviction to the law enforcement officer who carries out evictions in the area—usually a marshal or sheriff. Things usually move quickly after this—the eviction will occur within a day or so.
9. Law enforcement physically removes tenant. Most of the time, law enforcement will go to the property, make the tenant leave, and physically remove tenant’s belongings from the property. State law dictates how the landlord and law enforcement must handle the personal property. In some areas, the landlord must be present for the eviction. It is never the case that the landlord can legally remove the tenant without assistance from law enforcement.

After the physical eviction is complete, the landlord has the right to sue the tenant for any money the tenant owes. Often, the amounts at issue include unpaid rent, late fees, costs of repairing damage to the property, and whatever other costs or fees the court ordered the tenant to pay.