The Landlord Lens - Navigating The 5-Step Eviction Process

Episode Date: February 8, 2024

On this week's episode of Be A Better Landlord, Krista and Seamus discuss the five steps of the eviction process. 

Hi, I'm Seamus, joined by Krista, and we're here to make you a better landlord. Krista, one question we've been getting from our better landlord community is about evictions, which makes a ton of sense considering that 3.6 million evictions are occurring in the U.S. each year. Walk me through the steps to an eviction. So there are five steps to an eviction. The first one is going to be some research. You need to review the uniform resuscations. residential landlord and tenant act, also lovingly called Earl Tra, in addition to your local

landlord tenant laws. Now, the reason I recommend this step is that Erlta is going to tell you what your responsibilities are as a landlord and it flushes out what the tenant's responsibilities are. So it's a good starting point to make sure that any kind of complaints you have are aligning with failed expectations that they should be upholding. Equally, you need to review your local landlord tenant laws because eviction requirements processes everything very wildly, from even just county to county. So if you have a property right here where we are sitting today and there's another one 12 miles

down the road, you could have different processes that you have to follow, otherwise you will be held liable for what happens. So that is the first place to start. Make sure you know your laws, make sure that you know RELTA, and then you can move on to the second step. Makes sense.

And when you are looking up your local laws, feel free to contact your local county to ask deeper questions if you have them. A lot of people feel like they have to do this themselves. They don't. There are individuals out there that are available to answer those questions. Yeah.

And I will also say that a lot of counties have free mediation services that you can ask for, and that can help avoid the eviction process. So definitely reach out to your local government as you need to. Just be sure that you're looking at a dot-gov site. That is your government page, and that's going to have the best information for you as a landlord. All right. Step number one. we're looking at our local laws, right, to understand we are.

Move us on to step two. Yes, step two. Look at your lease again. Now, outside of the local laws, your lease is the single most important document that you have in regards to your tenant. It is everything that binds you together. It outlines what you need to do for them and what they need to do for you. So once you've looked over your local laws, you can take a look at your lease. If you are like so many landlords and you've been using the same lease over and over,

it's possible that your local laws have changed. And the thing that you are upset about or that is causing you pain with the tenant might not be in play depending on any kind of legislative updates. So look at your lease, make sure that anything that's going wrong is violating the actual lease. And at this point, you should be notifying your tenant if there are any lease violations. Don't let it slide. Don't let it be a casual. Hey, make sure you pay rent on time.

you really need to be documenting these conversations in order to move forward with the eviction process. The documentation throughout this entire process is so important. One of the things that I've started doing with my own properties when I do have a lease violation is not only document it, but even send it to the renter to sign it. So we've been using e-sign to create a really strong audit trail. It also helps a ton to establish that relationship between you and your tenant as a professional one. right? A lot of landlords have a really hard time interacting with their tenants and not becoming kind of like the friend, right? And when you're sending something that is official, a documentation

of that violation, they understand that this is not a suggestion. This is a serious matter that they have to take care of in order to continue to live in the property. Absolutely. And sometimes that official documentation is enough to get someone to cure their behavior, you know, especially if it is a behavioral issue or issues between tenants, that kind of very formal notice says, hey, stop this immediately. And a lot of them will. If it's a non-payment of rent issue, you might not see the same results, but you still need to follow the process because, again, documentation is your best friend.

Yeah, and document throughout the tenure of your relationship with this tenant. Don't just start documenting things when you feel like you may have to make an eviction here in the future. It's really important that landlords are documenting throughout the entire relationship with the tenant. All right. So what's step three in the eviction process? Step three is going to be to notify your tenant with an official eviction notice. So that means that you need to know how much time you have to give them in order to abide by your local laws. It could be as few as three days depending on why you're evicting them, where you live, what's in your lease. It might be as many as 91 days.

that 91 day mark is actually a notification period that you have to use in Colorado if a tenant doesn't pay rent in certain counties. So again, check back on your laws because that's going to dictate how much notice you need to provide. And so that notice that you're providing, is this how many days you have to wait before you actually give them notice? Or it's once you give them notice, how many days they have to vacate the process before you actually move forward with an eviction? Yeah, so it's the latter. It's the amount of days that the tenant has to act before. a consequence arises. So you're basically saying, hey, this is a list of what's gone wrong. Here are the

lease violations. If this is a non-payment of rent issue, here's how much you owe and when that was due, along with any kind of late charges, et cetera. And then you want to outline their next steps. So whether that is a payment that they need to give you by a certain date or otherwise just a quit notice where they have to vacate the property, make sure to outline that along with the day that you need that to happen. have all of that together and be sure that you're sending it in a way that is provable and documentable. So certified mail is a great option. Also required in some counties. You could also perhaps post it to the door if that's allowed in your county. As long as you can prove that the tenant received this notice, that is the most important part of moving forward.

Gotcha. And a lot of our viewers may be like me a little stingy, maybe extra frugal. I think this is one of the places where certified mail is worth the expense. In most cases, when you're moving forward to the eviction, you haven't been receiving rent, right? So you may be out thousands of dollars. Don't ruin that by skimping on sending certified mail to make sure that this notice is received, is provable, and then can be used moving forward if you do end up in court actually going through the eviction. Absolutely. And that actually segues beautifully to step four, which is gathering all of the documents you need and physically filing a case with the eviction court. So you're going to need proof that you sent the notice, along with any kind of documentation of the violations.

If rent is not being paid, you need to tell the courts how much is due when it was due, any late fees attached, just as you did in the actual notice. And of course, you need things like a copy of the renter's license, a copy of your lease agreement. Any other proof of violations, whether that's pictures of damages, if that's a problem, applicable conversations between you and your tenant that took place over text. All of this is going to provide the background for your case and context for the judge, who hears a lot of these affiction cases. So dot your eyes, cross your T's. This is the step where you really understand how important documentation is. Some of that documentation that you're mentioning goes all the way back to when you receive that application, right? Having the driver's license image, for example,

in that application has, gives you an opportunity, right, to actually have this for when you're about to file. Because in a lot of cases, right, if you have a tenant that you think you're going to move forward to evict, the relationship's probably quite tenuous. And so going to them and asking for a photo of their driver's license, probably not going to happen. And so, again, establishing good practices as a landlord is going to set you up for what is kind of the worst case scenario, which is doing an eviction later down the road. Yeah. So it's very important. If you learn nothing else here today, document everything. Keep it on hand to keep it organized because should something terrible happen that you have to evict someone,

you will save yourself time and stress by having everything ready to go. And you're really giving me a layup here for a TurboTenet plug, which is an all-on-one system that does help you stay organized and run your entire landlord process. It provides a audit trail for you with records to ensure that you're taking all the right steps. Our goal at TurboDenna is make sure you don't ever have to go through an eviction because you're screening your tenants the right way. But in the case you do, it's one of several tools that can help you really organize throughout the process. Yeah, absolutely. And you're going to need it because the eviction process is long. And the judge might have specific requirements that they want this document or that document. So have everything

on hand, be able to pull from it as you need, and then you've got to wait through the process. Unfortunately, you also have to pay for the process. So if you choose to file by yourself, typically that's going to cost about $50. However, when we look at the whole eviction process, that usually runs landlords around $3,500 without including missed rent. So it is quite costly and typically takes at least three to four weeks. And that's on average. Of course, there are a lot of courts that are still very backed up due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

So it could be a longer runtime, which means you're out even more rent because you have to let the tenant stay during that time. Yeah, it's taken us over six months before with a property in New York State to actually get the court case and go through this process as you described it. Do you suggest that tenants use a legal professional to do that filing? Or, you know, you mentioned it's $50 if you file by yourself. Or in most cases, should a landlord be able to just file by themselves and really lead themselves to the process? Putting myself in that position, if it was a pretty cut and dry non-payment of rent issue, I would feel confident. enough to file by myself. If it's something that's more complicated, let's say that it started as non-payment of rent and then the relationship dissolved and it's gotten more contentious,

at that point I would pull in a legal professional because I want to spend less time worrying about that and more time focusing on my other properties. But play it by ear and what feels good to you based on your experience level. I will also say, when in doubt, do not be afraid to at least ask a legal professional for their opinion. You know, maybe you spend a couple hundred dollars consulting with them and that saves you thousands of dollars down the line. Yeah. And I think for our viewers out there to understand that the first time you do this, it's going to be an intimidating process. You're going to feel like you're keeping track of a ton of different details. And really, you are walking on glass, making sure that you are taking the right steps so you can

go through it. I can share from my experience, though, once you've gone through the process, it gets a lot less intimidating. You recognize the things. that you can do ahead of time to avoid it or at least prepare for it going forward. So the first time is definitely the hardest. Oh yeah, it's rough. And hopefully, you know, knock on wood, our landlords only have to go through it once or never at all. But the reality is, unfortunately, it's an issue that keeps popping up. So with that in mind, you run through the whole process.

It takes an average of three to four weeks if you're lucky. And then you get to step five, which is actually being able to reclaim the property. So you can only reclaim the property, one, once the eviction court has found in your favor. They will set a date for when you can go and start changing locks. And of course, they're going to build in some time for the tenant to move out and take their belongings too. So sometimes the eviction court will require a local sheriff to be on scene, just to mitigate any kind of contentious behavior.

If it's not required in your county, it's something that you can request. You would call your non-emergency line, let them know ahead of time when you might. might need someone and ask them to send someone just to be on the scene to keep the peace, especially if you've had a falling out with your tenant, that is the move. Yeah, and I'd suggest definitely doing that, right? It's better safe than sorry to have a witness there. You never know how someone is going to react. As challenging this is for you as a landlord, it's equally, if not more challenging for the tenant, right, who no longer has a place to live now in some situations. And so I think that the added caution of having law enforcement available during that time

is well, well worth it, regardless of whether or not it's required where you are. Yes, well said. And I would add on that, you know, evictions are nasty for all sides. No one enjoys the eviction process. On the landlord side of things, you're losing out on money, a time with your family, you're more stressed. On the tenant side, just as you said, they're losing housing. And that's really traumatic, especially for families with children. So if you can avoid the eviction process, I would recommend it. And there are alternatives that people can pursue, depending on their unique situations, such as a cash for keys arrangement.

It's not wildly popular, if only because if I come to you and say, Hey, Seamus, pay the person who owes you money to leave your property. That doesn't feel good, right? Yeah. But at the end of the day, the only way to really recoup your losses is to get a new tenant in there to start paying rent. So that's why a cash for keys arrangement can be beneficial, even if it doesn't feel the best. Yeah, it's definitely a very strange feeling from personal experience. During the pandemic, there is a couple of situations where cash for keys was the best option with one of our tenants.

And it feels very bizarre to have someone that maybe is six months behind on rent and you were paying them thousands of dollars to move out. But at the end of the day, it's often the best path forward to get somebody out of the property. especially in the case where your eviction court is way, way behind, right? If there are six months behind, you've got a lot more pain ahead of you. And so that's the step that you can take. Yeah, well said. And I've heard that often from our landlords. So good to hear that it plays out for you too.

All right. I have a question, though. You mentioned step five is actually going through with the eviction. I know that there's things in between the point where the eviction will happen right to the date where they actually have to vacate it. Tell me a little bit about dues or don'ts during that time period, which could be, what, four weeks or so. Yeah, so during the time that the eviction proceedings are carrying on, you have to let the tenant live in the property without any interference. So that means do not go and change the locks. Do not shut off utilities. Don't bar the door. Any of those actions are considered a self-help eviction. and despite the fun name, it's illegal.

So you will ruin your case, even if you've done everything right up until that point, by taking those actions. So what I'd recommend, keep it calm, cool and professional. Let them carry on. Everything's being worked out through the court. And then once you get that ruling, if it's in your favor, at that point, you can change the locks and go in and clean. But not until that day. I mean, investing in real estate is a long-term game. We all have to be patient when things are going right.

we have to be patient when things aren't going right to let the process play out so that we can return to a good state. Absolutely. What happens if somebody purchases a property? That property comes with tenants and maybe those tenants are in violation with the lease from the previous landlord. If you purchase a property that has tenants, by and large you have to let them finish out their lease before you can make any moves. And that's not even considering any kind of lease violations. However, if there are lease violations, specifically for non-payment of rent, then you can continue to pursue those as the new owner. If there are lease violations that are more behavioral in nature, that's going to get sticky, especially if there was tension between the previous landlord and the tenant, it might be that you stepping in is the fix that was needed in order to correct course. However, it's not going to be the same if they owe you money because the money that is owed still is attached to the lease and they are still bound by the terms of the lease just as you are as the new owner.

So move through, look at the documentation if you have to start fresh. Start immediately. Again, document, document, document, have dates and times attached to every time you communicate with the tenant. It's going to be a long road, but at least that way there's a light at the end of the tunnel and you can, look forward to hopefully a ruling in your favor. And one thing that you can do whenever you're purchasing, let's say a rental property or even a portfolio where their units are occupied is right right into the contract to purchase those properties, the documentation that you want from that landlord, right? So make sure you're getting copies of all the leases and they are documenting any violations

ahead of time because there is a chance you're not aware of the different violations and having that documentation handed over to you, and even making the purchase contingent upon getting that documentation is going to serve you really well going forward. Brilliant tip. Well, Krista, this has been super valuable. Thank you for walking us through the five steps of the eviction process. I've learned a lot. I'm sure our viewers have as well.

If you have any questions for us, please drop them in the comments. We'd love to hear from there. TurboTenant is the all-in-one platform for landlords to manage their rental properties. From vacancy to tenancy, we have you covered with industry-leading tools and expert advice. Landlord Better from anywhere for free at turbotenant.com.