What happens if you've been served an eviction notice?

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7-Jan-20 – If you are a tenant, there are laws you have to follow in order to have a good relationship with your landlord. However, there are certain cases and extraneous events that may prevent you from fulfilling your obligations and responsibilities as a tenant. When this happens, your landlord will serve you an eviction notice, and the eviction process might follow if they are no longer happy with you staying on their property.

Getting an eviction notice may be surprising and distressing, especially if you have nowhere to go to and never had plans of moving out. As a tenant, you immediately want to know what your rights are and what your next move should be.

Enumerated below are things you must take heed of and do if you have been served an eviction notice:

Check if the notice is valid

Your landlord must send you a correct notice with all the necessary information, which depends on your kind of contract or tenancy type. You should also check if the eviction note has any type of mistake on it, such as the name or address.

Your landlord can evict you based on several reasons. There are different types of notices landlords can serve you, but they must follow proper protocols.

Eviction happens because the tenant has violated some of the agreements in the tenancy contract. Examples of such violations include:

• Failure to pay the rent on time

• Damage to property due to keeping unapproved pets

• Causing noise or other disturbances

• Posing health and safety hazards

An eviction notice must be served properly, and the most common notices to vacate are:

• Three-day notice for waste or nuisance

• 10-day notice to comply with the terms of the rental agreement or vacate

• 14-day notice to pay or vacate

• 20-day notice to terminate a tenancy

The notice has a time limit, and you must respond on time or your landlord takes action against you. The landlord will be attempting personal delivery of the eviction notice by posting it on your door, or mailing or leaving it to someone in your household who is of suitable age and knowledge.

Communicate with your landlord immediately

The 14-day notice may be served personally to you or to a person of suitable age and knowledge in your household. It may also be posted on your door or sent by mail. The worst thing you can do is ignore your landlord or ignore the notice about the non-payment of rent. You should know that your landlord will gain nothing from evicting you; in fact, they will get more losses due to legal fees and lost income. You should negotiate with your landlord about what you plan to do next. If your landlord doesn’t hear from you, they will think that their next recourse will be to file an eviction lawsuit.

Negotiate

If it is possible, you can still negotiate with your landlord before the allotted time period of your eviction expires. If you need to pay any outstanding amount, pay it or have an agreement on the terms of payment. If you have broken anything, check your terms of agreement and your degree of responsibility for the damage, and how you plan to compensate.

You can do these actions to stop the eviction, but any agreement you have decided on with your landlord should be put in writing, as well as signed and dated by both parties.

A landlord cannot evict you unless there is a court order for it

If the lawsuit against you has been filed due to non-payment of rent, you must be able to prove that you do not owe your landlord ten non-payment of rent; otherwise, the lawsuit will move on. However, even if you get a 14-day pay or vacate notice, it doesn’t mean that it should be followed. You still can stay in your rental property. Remember that an eviction can only happen after a court order has been issued.

You can stop your eviction from the non-payment of rent if you pay your rent. One thing you can do is to pay the rent for the accrued non-paid days. Avoid paying in cash, but if you do, make sure that you get a receipt.

Some landlords will not accept money until after the court process has been completed.

Remember that there are no exceptions to the non-payment of rent. People with young children who have experienced a sudden loss of job or have suffered from other unexpected tragedies are not exempted from paying rent properly. Also, unmade repairs, complaints against the landlord, or money your landlord owes you is not a valid reason for non-payment of rent.

Leaving is an option

If you have been served an eviction notice, the eviction lawsuit would naturally come next. To avoid lawsuits, some tenants choose to leave. However, the landlord may still file a lawsuit or get a collection to get the money if tenants fail to give them the amount they owe. Many rental agreements have a due date, and some even have a grace period, usually stretching to three to five days. If you have failed to pay after this grace period, your landlord can serve you a 14-day pay or vacate notice and even issue you penalty fees.

Check the documentation of all rental payments

If you think you’ve been given a wrongful eviction notice, you should check your documents and receipts of all the times you have paid your rent. Paying your rent and not getting a receipt for it can leave you vulnerable to claims that the money has never been received or has been lost. The best way to pay for your money is through a personal check or money order. You should photocopy the money order before you separate it from the stub to make sure you have proof.

When you pay in cash, you should secure a receipt from your landlord. If you think your eviction is wrongful, you can also get a third-party witness to testify that you have paid the rent and that it was received aside from presenting the necessary documents.

Final thoughts

Renting a property is certainly a cheaper alternative than owning one; however, you should remember that you have responsibilities and obligations as a tenant. For one, it is your responsibility to adhere to the rental agreement because any violation can give your landlord the right to evict you. Check documents and legalities carefully before signing a rental agreement to make sure that you can comply with them, and the conditions are within your capacity to fulfill.

Know your rights as a tenant and know what actions you should take after being sent an eviction notice. Always keep documents, receipts, and other letters as you would need them in case you need to defend yourself from a wrongful eviction notice.