When Good Tenants Go Bad - What You Can’t Do To Force Your Renters To Leave
If you are in the rental business, sooner or later, you are going to have atenant who inexplicably stops paying rent. Theycan give you the run around with stories about why they can’tpay and promises of an entire payment plus late fees just around the corner. Or, theycan just neglect your phone calls and reject to answer the door if you come in personto try to collect rent. Bottom line is, when it comes to this point,such lessees will need to be served with a three day notice to leave to start the evictions process. A landlord tenant lawyer long island can assist you with this.
While you can be frustrated and seduced to take measures into yourown hands, it is quite essentialto follow the legal procedure for removing a non-paying tenant from your premises. Specifically, the law expressly bansyou from doing the next:
Removing Locks
In no way is it illegable for you to remove the locks, orput new locks on the property to “lock out” yourtenant. It doesn’t matter if they are months behind on their rent, havetotally trashed the house and are in violation ofeach provision in the lease. They are legally 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 for the purposeto make your renters to move out. Again, yourtenants, however far behind in rent they are, cansearch for legal recourse against you for this action and can collectheavy fines against you.
Taking Tenant’s Property
You can not harass your renter into moving out. This wouldcontain illegally entering the rental unit and taking their property. Only undertoo specific conditions (abandonment) is a landlordallowed to remove a tenant’s property.
Physical Removal
Only the legal authority (as a rulethe sheriff’s office or their agents) is allowed to remove a tenant after a writ of possession isobtained from the court and the legal waiting time has elapsed. This means that you can’t hire your own help to physically move out atenant. Consult a nassau evictions lawyer for more information.
While the above list describes the main things that you, as a landlord, are not allowed to do to make a tenant leave, it is not all inclusive. Any number of different creative strategies to harass atenant to leave are also illegal.
The one legal way to remove a renter from your property is to go through the legal eviction process. Yes, it takes time and money.Keep in mind that you are able to deduct the unpaid rent for theterm that your renter remains in the property during the eviction process from their security deposit.