Debt Settlement Scams

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 an entire payment plus late fees just around the corner. Or, they can just ignore your phone calls and refuse to answer the door if you come in person to try to collect rent. Bottom line is, when it goes to this point, such lessees will need to be served with a three day notice to leave to start the eviction process.

While you may be frustrated and seduced to take measures into your own hands, it is quite essential to keep to the legal procedure for removing a non-paying tenant from your premises. Specifically, the law expressly forbids you from doing the following:

Removing Locks

In no way is it legal for you to change the locks, or install 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 in an attempt to force your renters to move out. Again, your tenants, however far behind in rent they are, may search for legal recourse against you for this action and can collect hefty fines against you.

Taking Renter?s Property

You may not harass your tenant into moving out. This would include illegally entering the rental unit and taking their property. Only under too specific circumstances (abandonment) is a landlord enabled to remove a tenant’s property.

Physical Removal

Only the legal authority (usually the sheriff’s office or their agents) can remove a tenant after a writ of possession is received from the court and the legal waiting time has elapsed. This means that you can’t hire your own help to physically move out a occupant.

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 different creative strategies to harass a tenant to move out are also illegible.

The only legal way to remove a renter 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 term that your renter stays in the property during the eviction process from their security deposit.

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