Download our FREE eviction notice form and read on about how to legally evict. You may have a bad tenant, but you must make sure you LEGALLY evict them to avoid a reprimand from the law.
You may think that if your tenant fails to pay rent or trashes their apartment, you can just change the locks. After all, who wouldn’t be on your side when shown evidence of a bad renter? Unfortunately, the law isn’t necessarily on your side. Legally, you cannot take matters into your own hands outside of the court system if you want to evict a tenant. Turning off utilities or threatening your tenant may lead said tenant to take legal action against you – and you may lose. No matter how bad of a tenant someone is, he or she still has rights.
It’s understandable that you want to complete this process quickly. A full eviction process may cost you time and rent money. But, because of these rules, it’s important to know how to legally evict someone. With the help of the attached free eviction notice forms, you’ll be able to easily oust a bad tenant. Keep more money in your pocket by following the rules.
You MUST always give notice to a tenant you plan to evict. California rules state that you must give a tenant three days’ notice of a lease violations before trying to evict them. Additionally, simply slapping a notice on the door with the tenant’s name won’t work. Remember to completely fill out this form. Many tenants facing eviction complain about not being properly served – so don’t make this mistake. If this is the case, they may be able to get away with wrongdoing when a judge examines the matter.
Furthermore, you are required to give tenants notice to evict them. For tenants living in a property for less than a year, they are legally entitled to 30 days’ notice that they are being evicted. For tenants living in a property for more than a year, they are legally entitled to 60 days’ notice.
Once you serve a notice form, if the tenant does not vacate, you can file the official eviction action. First, you should obtain a Summons and Complaint for said tenant to come to court. These documents explain the reason for eviction. They also give the tenant to come to court to fight the complaint. Remember that slapping these on your tenant’s door is not the way to deliver them. You have to file these papers with the court, and a third party has to deliver copies to the tenant. You cannot serve your own tenant with eviction papers.
If your problem tenant doesn’t show up to fight, then you are likely to win by default. If the tenant shows up to fight, then you’ll need to show evidence as to why your tenant was bad. During processes like eviction, it is important to keep detailed records of your encounters to prove that you’re in the right.
Hopefully, knowing all of these steps in advance will help you win and be able to legally evict the tenant. Download the free eviction notice forms now and start getting familiar with them before this happens to you.