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!

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Published: December 21, 1999

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