If you are in the rental sphere, sooner or later, you are going to have a renter who inexplicably ceases paying rent. They may 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 simply ignore your phone calls and refuse to answer the door if you come in person to try to collect rent. Bottom line is, when it goes to this point, these renters will have to be served with a three day notice to abandon to initiate the eviction process.

While you may be frustrated and tempted to take measures into your own hands, it is very essential to follow the legal procedure for removing a non-paying tenant from your property. Specifically, the law expressly disallows you from doing the following:

Changing Locks

In no way is it legal for you to change the locks, or install new locks on the property to “lock out” your tenant. It doesn’t matter if they are months behind on their rent, have entirely trashed the property and are in violation of each provision in the lease. They are lawfully protected against a “lock out” and can 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 renters, however far behind in rent they are, can seek legal recourse against you for this action and can collect hefty fines against you.

Taking Renter’s Property

You may not harass your tenant into moving out. This would contain illegally entering the rental unit and taking their property. Only under very specific circumstances (abandonment) is a landlord allowed to remove a renter’s property.

Physical Removal

Only the illegible 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 personal help to physically move out a tenant.

While the above list describes the common 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 harass a tenant to move out are also illegible.

The one legal way to remove a tenant from your property is to go through the legal eviction process. Yes, it costs money and yes it takes time. Remember that you are able to deduct the unpaid rent for the period that your renter stays in the property during the eviction process from their security deposit.

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