What is Eviction?

Published by Thomas Herold in Real Estate

'Eviction' is explained in detail and with examples in the Real Estate edition of the Herold Financial Dictionary, which you can get from Amazon in Ebook or Paperback edition.

Eviction involves the forced removal of a rental tenant from a landlord’s rental property. Other terms that convey the same or a similar meaning include repossession, summary possession, and ejection. Eviction proves to be the term most commonly utilized in landlord and tenant communications. Evictions can not simply happen without going through a legal process that could include an eviction lawsuit.

A notice must first be given to the tenant by the landlord. This is most often referred to as the notice to vacate or notice to quit. It has to be delivered to a tenant in advance of beginning official legal eviction procedures. In most cases, the tenant will then receive somewhere from three to ten days to address the issue causing eviction. These offenses likely are caused by either a failure to pay the rent in a timely manner or contractual breach of the lease for something like have a pet.

Should the tenant refuse to leave the property in question after the expiration of the notice to quit, then the landlord next provides the tenant with a complaint. These complaints mandate that the tenant in question will have to go to court. If the tenant refuses to appear at the court date or does not provide an answer to the complaint, then the landlord is able to seek a default judgment, in which he or she automatically wins the case. A tenant response should include his or her side of the story as well as defense that could include the tenant not being provided with repairs that the lease stipulates.

Following an appropriate answer, trial dates are determined. With the issues being dependent on time, these cases are commonly hurried through the system. Should a judge back up a tenant, then the tenant is allowed to stay, although he or she would have to pay back due rent. Should the landlord be victorious, then the tenant receives a little window to move out of the property before being forcefully evicted. This is commonly only a week, though with a stay of execution, the tenant could be given more time.

Some jurisdictions permit a tenant to have a right to redemption in the eviction process. This would allow a tenant to cancel a pending eviction and to stay in the rented property by catching up immediately on the back rent along with other appropriate fees. These rights become waived should the tenant constantly be late in paying the rent.

Finally, after a tenant has lost his or her eviction lawsuit, the tenant is commonly given a particular number of days in which to abandon the property. This has to be done before other repercussions occur. Sometimes the tenant will be told to leave immediately.

Landlords are given writs of possession by the court after the tenant has lost the lawsuit and still refused to leave. These writs of possession are then turned over to a law enforcement officer. Such an officer would then put up an official notice for a tenant to depart the property before the date on which the officer will return to forcibly remove the tenant. If the tenant is not gone when the officer returns, he is permitted to take the tenant and anyone else on the property and remove them. They will be allowed to take away their possessions or place them in storage before the property is given back to the landlord.

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The term 'Eviction' is included in the Real Estate edition of the Herold Financial Dictionary, which you can get from Amazon in Ebook or Paperback edition.