Eviction Tips

Doing your due diligence in advance and being discerning about the tenants you accept in your rental or investment property will greatly reduce the chance for evictions. We generally average about 1 completed eviction per 100 properties per year. No matter how much you plan and screen a tenant, if someone falls on hard times, they just physically may not be able to pay the rent. The good news is that if you qualify your tenants in advance, in the event that you must evict them, those pre-qualified tenants are far less likely to damage the property and more likely to at least leave it intact. If you must go to the eviction stage, it’s a 2-part process. First, the landlord must serve what’s called a “5-day pay rent or quit” notification. The 5-day period is more like 8–10 days depending on the jurisdiction since different municipalities discount Fridays, holidays and weekends as part of the daily count. Once that period of waiting is up, you can file a “summary of eviction”. This is where the costs come in to hire the constable to lock the tenant out and pay the court filing fees. For evictions in which the landlord follows the law during the eviction process and doesn’t open themselves up to legitimate legal challenges from the tenant, the process can be completed in as little as 20–30 days. The important thing is to be smart and review the statutes before you take any steps with the tenant.  You can not simply show up and put a note on their door. You should do a legal eviction so your rights are protected and the tenant can not come back later to say you failed to properly serve them. There are a whole host of other “bad ideas” landlords can do during eviction to make the situation worse. If you have questions on this, feel free to call us up or email me at kyle@cgroupvegas.com.