If you are in the rental sphere, sooner or later, you are going to have a tenant who inexplicably ceases paying rent. They can give you the run around with stories about why they are not able to pay and promises of a full payment plus late fees just around the corner. Or, they may even ignore your phone calls and reject to answer the door if you come in person to try to collect rent. Bottom line is, when it comes to this point, these tenants will need to be served with a three day notice to vacate to initiate the evictions process. A suffolk evictions lawyer can help you with this.
While you can be frustrated and tempted to take measures into your personal hands, it is quite important to follow the legal procedure for removing a non-paying renter from your property. Specifically, the law expressly bans you from doing the next:
Removing Locks
In no way is it illegable for you to remove the locks, or put new locks on the house to “lock out” your renter. It doesn’t matter if they are months behind on their rent, have totally trashed the house and are in violation of every provision in the lease. They are lawfully protected against a “lock out” and may take you to court to regain entry.
Utility Shut-offs
You may not shut off the water, gas or electricity for the purpose 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 can not harass your tenant into moving out. This would include illegally entering the rental unit and taking their property. Only under very specific conditions (abandonment) is a landlord allowed to remove a tenant’s property.
Physical Removal
Only the legal authority (as a rule the sheriff’s office or their agents) is allowed to remove a tenant after a writ of possession is obtained 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. Consult a nassau evictions lawyer for more information.
While the above list describes the main things that you, as a landlord, cannot do to get a tenant to move out, it is not all inclusive. Any number of different creative strategies to compel a renter to leave are also illegible.
The only legal way to remove a tenant from your property is to go through the legal eviction process. Yes, it takes time and money. Remember that you can deduct the unpaid rent for the term that your tenant stays in the property during the eviction process from their security deposit.