Eviction is a process of removing an individual, group, or family from a rental premises for violating a number of circumstances, most commonly over repeated failure to pay an agreed upon rental or lease payment. Laws regulating rental properties and the process of eviction can vary on a county level. TenantScreeningUSA.com highly recommends that landlords AND tenants understand local eviction laws.
Property managers and landlords face many challenges renting properties. A key challenge is maintaining 100% occupancy of a property. Finding viable tenants that can fulfill the long-term financial obligation of renting a single-family dwelling or apartment can be complex, but once in place viable tenants can provide a degree of financial surety for a property owner. However, there are tenants that may have initially shown the capability to fulfill an obligation but, due to a variety of circumstances, ultimately fail and force a landlord into the eviction process.
Eviction is never easy, either for the landlord or the renter. It is a long, expensive process that puts a significant drain on a property in terms of financial loss due to potential property damage, damage to property reputation and loss of potential income.
Adam Almeida, President and CEO of TenantScreeningUSA.com states: “Eviction is a challenging process, both in terms of time and monetary loss.”
One mistake owners of single- or small-unit property make is renting to their own family.
An article posted to the Independent Record (Sep. 01, 2013), outlines the travails of an elderly couple that rented to a family member and were subsequently forced to evict.
“They were served with an eviction notice and had one week to remove their personal possessions, but left a ton of stuff and vehicles on the property. This cute little house looks worse than the city dump. There are holes in the walls, and filth everywhere, it is just trashed!” http://helenair.com/business/local/renting-to-daughter-huge-mistake-for-retired-couple/article_4e2a18b0-12d1-11e3-905e-001a4bcf887a.html
Almeida continues: “Landlords need to provide clear guidelines covering a tenant’s residency, specific to the possibility of eviction. There are reasons other than failure to pay rent, such as code violation, that could cause eviction. It must be very clear to a tenant.”
The online Vallejo Times-Herald (Sep 01, 2013) reports a woman evicted for bringing in homeless individuals to her home and sheltering them, subsequently breaking code enforcement regulations.
Cathy Erler took in strangers into her home when they needed a place to sleep. Now she finds herself living in her car with two friends and a dog after she was evicted due to pressure from neighbors and the city. http://www.timesheraldonline.com/news/ci_23993782/vallejos-cathy-erler-helped-homeless-now-shes-one
In Norristown, PA a renter has been warned by the local police department that: “one more altercation at her rented row house here, one more call to 911, and they would force her landlord to evict her.” http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/17/us/victims-dilemma-911-calls-can-bring-eviction.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
The New York Times reports (Aug 17, 2013) rapid expansion of neighborhood nuisance laws that could lead to eviction.
Over the last 25 years, in a trend still growing, hundreds of cities and towns across the country have adopted nuisance property or “crime-free housing” ordinances. Putting responsibility on landlords to weed out drug dealers and disruptive tenants, the laws aim to save neighborhoods from blight as well as ease burdens on the police. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/17/us/victims-dilemma-911-calls-can-bring-eviction.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
Eviction can come from the landlord or be forced upon a landlord by local agencies or cities, but can also come from Home Owner Associations (HOA).
A Dunwoody apartment complex is evicting a man, claiming he made other tenants uncomfortable by staring at them at the pool. http://www.wsbtv.com/news/news/local/apartment-complex-evicts-man-making-tenants-uncomf/nZZRy/
In the end it is incumbent on both landlord and renter to understand the eviction laws within their community. It is a tool of last resort that can be very expensive to a landlord’s property, a property’s reputation, and ability to maintain a long-term financially secure rental community.
TenantScreeningUSA.com is a third-party tenant screening company that provides tenant checks to landlords and property managers for rental communities ranging from single units to large complexes.
