If you are in the rental sphere, sooner or later, you are going to have a tenant who inexplicably stops paying rent. They can give you the run around with stories about why they can’t pay and promises of a full payment plus late fees just around the corner. Or, they can simply ignore your phone calls and refuse to answer the door if you show up in person trying to collect rent. Bottom line is, when it goes to this point, such renters will need to be served with a three day notice to vacate to initiate the eviction process.
While you can be frustrated and seduced to take measures into your personal hands, it is quite essential to follow the legal procedure for removing a non-paying tenant from your property. Specifically, the law expressly disallows you from doing the next:
Removing Locks
In no way is it legal for you to change the locks, or put new locks on the house to “lock out” your renter. It doesn’t matter if they are months behind on their rent, have entirely trashed the property and are in violation of every provision in the lease. They are lawfully protected against a “lock out” and can take you to court to regain entry.
Utility Shut-offs
You can not shut off the water, gas or electricity for the purpose to make your renters to move out. Again, your tenants, however far behind in rent they are, may seek legal recourse against you for this action and may collect hefty fines against you.
Taking Renter’s Property
You may not harass your tenant into moving out. This would contain illegally entering the rental unit and taking their property. Only under rather specific circumstances (abandonment) is a landlord allowed to remove a renter’s property.
Physical Removal
Just the legal authority (as a rule the sheriff’s office or their agents) is allowed to remove a tenant after a writ of possession is received from the court and the legal waiting time has finished. This means that you can’t hire your own help to physically move out a renter.
While the above list describes the common things that you, as a landlord, are not allowed to do to get a tenant to move out, it is not all inclusive. Any number of other creative strategies to compel a renter to leave are also illegible.
The only legal way to remove a tenant from your property is to go through the legal eviction process. Yes, it costs money and yes it takes time. Keep in mind that you can deduct the unpaid rent for the period that your renter remains in the property during the eviction process from their security deposit.
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