The Legal Process of an Eviction
In the event that a landlord decides to evict their tenant, he
or she must follow certain guidelines. The landlord can legally
evict you for three different reasons:
1. You miss a rent payment. 2. You violate the rules stated in
the lease i.e. unauthorized pets, failure to leave after lease
is up, etc. 3. You abandon the rental unit for more than half of
the rental period and did not notify the landlord you would be
leaving.
You can NOT be evicted for race, religion, children,
nationality, or marital status. This is called discrimination.
If you think this is why you are being evicted, you should
contact an attorney because these things should not be a factor
in your residency.
If the landlord has legal grounds to evict you, he or she must
first notify you that there is a problem and tell you that you
will be evicted if the problem is not fixed.
Once the problem has been spoken about, the landlord and tenant
will usually draw up a written agreement to have whatever seems
to be the problem fixed by a certain date (usually within 7 to
10 days).
If you refuse to correct the problem within the time frame
agreed on, the landlord then must file a complaint with the
county court. You will receive a copy of this complaint along
with a summons to appear in court. The land lord CAN NOT legally
evict you without a hearing. An eviction notice is much
different than a court order. If he or she attempts to do force
you out of your home without a hearing, contact the police or an
attorney.
Once the complaint has been filed with the court, you will
receive a "Notice of Hearing" setting a hearing date. If you
wish to contest the eviction, you must file an answer with the
court within five business days. You will also need to deposit
any outstanding rent with the clerk of the court. If you decide
to ignore the summons, the court is allowed then to issue the
landlord a final judgement allowing the sheriff to evict you.
Failure to appear at the hearing at all causes eviction without
question. If you go to the hearing and win, you have nothing to
worry about. If you go and lose, you have the right to appeal.
If you lose and do not appeal, you will be served with a "Writ
of Possession". This is the eviction order of the court. In some
states, you will also owe double the rent for the time which you
stayed over, your landlord's legal expenses, and possibly court
costs. After the time specified at the hearing is up, your
landlord can legally change the locks on your apartment and
assert a lien on your possessions for the money which you owe
him.
Hopefully you will never receive an eviction notice, but if you
do, at least you'll know what to expect!