BiggerPockets

Depends 100% on where you are located. Could be as short as 30 days and as long as 3-4 months.

Also depends on the tenant and how well they know local law VS your knowledge.

If you post what city/state this is in I am sure BP can be more helpful.

Go to Magistrate's Court (or whatever they call it where you are) and watch the proceedings. Most likely you will see several evictions. Watch and learn.

Your key document will be the signed and dated lease. Plus proof that you delivered the Pay or Quit (either registered mail or you will affirm under oath that you delivered it - check your particular statutes for how to do it). Matter of fact, you should become very familiar with your local rental statutes on all aspects of rentals.

Once you do a few evictions you will (sadly) become more comfortable with the process. However... you will gain a few amusing stories about how tenants try to weasel out of their responsibility.

As a quick addendum, the last time I was in small claims court trying to recover several thousand dollars from some tenants, I brought with me several pounds of documents sorted out within about a dozen folders.

After the Magistrate asked me to state my case, I spent at least 30 seconds arranging the neatly-labeled folders out upon the Plaintiff's desk before I said a word. Even though 3/4 of what I brought was crap anything the Magistrate asked for I immediately had.

Don't know if it made any difference in the proceedings but standing behind my bunker of papers sure made ME feel better.

Good luck and let us know how things go.

Curt,

Pulling their air conditioning; cutting their electric line (your previous ridiculous suggestion); and anything else of the kind IS BLATANTLY ILLEGAL! In many states, the landlord can be held liable for such illegal actions and can face double or triple damages! Promoting illegal activities is wreckless and irresponsible!

Kirk,

If you're going to be in the rental business, then you must KNOW the law in your area. I would suggest either having a successful landlord or a real estate lawyer help you with your first eviction, including the proper "pay or quit" form, notices, etc. Things MUST be done EXACTLY right or your eviction will be thrown out of court and you'll get to start again. Evictions are a normal part of the rental property business and you need to learn how to do them correctly!

Good Luck,

Mike

Kirk,

Good luck with your tenant - I hope they move voluntarily. Unfortunately, that is not my experience. The vast majority of the tenants that I post an eviction notice for must be evicted. Most show up at the eviction hearing and make some ridiculous argument (like this or that wasn't maintained properly - always b.s.). Then, the majority that are evicted actually need to be set-out!

I've got another eviction this month. UGH! I posted the 3 day notice on the 5th and will take the paperwork to the lawyer tomorrow. I won't accept rent after I take the paperwork to the lawyer - it's too late!!! We'll file in court on Monday and go from there.

Mike

Mike, I was waiting for you to show up! I was going to set the record straight on Curt's self help eviction advice, but knew you would do a much better job.

Kirk, we just went through our first eviction, too. It was actually pretty painless, except for the court costs of $72 and the lost rent for July and now August. There must have been 100 landlords and tenants at the court house and it's a small town. Our tenant was a no show on the hearing date. We didn't even see the judge. The clerk took care of the paperwork. Our tenant moved out before we had to file the writ of possession, probably because her electricity was turned off and it's hot here. Thank goodness her kid wasn't in school because, apparently, you can't evict someone while a child is attending public school in Texas.

We found a site that explained all the landlord and tenant laws in Texas. Just google "New York eviction procedure" and you'll find all the info you need.

Debbie

Curt - The property is located in Upstate, NY, as Kirk mentioned, not in TN. As I'm not familiar with NY landlord law, I'm not going to comment. Have you checked the statutes in NY?

Thank goodness her kid wasn't in school because, apparently, you can't evict someone while a child is attending public school in Texas.

Debbie, I just wanted to comment on this. It doesn't sound even close to being right and I think someone mis-informed you. If you couldn't evict a tenant just because their child was in school, that would essentially eliminate evicting all deadbeats for 9 months of the year. Even here in Ohio, you could evict a pregnant lady who is in labor while she is carrying her 6 year old to the first day of school! The law generally doesn't allow deadbeats to stay in your rental, regardless of their victim status. Of course, that may not apply to the socialist states/cities like Kaleefornya or NYC!

Mike

Mike, I read that tenants can postpone eviction if they can present a good reason:

"You may file a request for an "extension of time" if hardships keep you from making the deadline. Typically moving a child out of school, loss of job etc may qualify to avoid evictions."

And, I want to clarify our tenant's electricity was turned off by the utility company for non-payment. We had nothing to do with it.

Looks like the text Debbie references is from a rentlaw page:

http://www.rentlaw.com/eviction.htm

That page doesn't appear to refer to any particular state. The paragraph that mentions that also says "BE YOU MUST HAVE PLAN OF ACTION. ". I assume "BE" is really "BUT". So, perhaps the implication is you could delay the eviction a short time while you figure out what to do with the children. But I can't see a judge, even in a tenant friendly location, delaying an eviction nine months. Heck, if that's the law, why not 12 years while they finish school?