Evicting a Tenant

After you start the case, don’t miss your Court date or the case will be dismissed. The tenant has the right to ask the Court to postpone the case for at least 14 days if the tenant is not ready for court. This is called an adjournment. If this happens, you will get a new court date. When you come to Court you may settle the case, the tenant may not show up (default), or you may go to trial. You will be able to evict a tenant after any of these if you have a judgment. The judgment tells the tenant how much money he or she has to pay or when he or she must move out. The judgment has a date when you can get a warrant of eviction.

If you don’t get a judgment, you can’t evict the tenant. In a nonpayment case, the tenant may pay you all the money. If this happens, the tenant gets to stay. The tenant may also make a Motion to ask the court to dismiss the case or to give the tenant a judgment. If the tenant wins, the case is over and you can’t evict the tenant. Sometimes, the case is dismissed, but you can start it again. This is called a dismissal without prejudice. For example, if you did not give the tenant enough days in a notice, the court can dismiss the case, but you can give the tenant a new notice and then start a new case.

 

Getting a Warrant

After you get a judgment, you must give the Court Clerk a warrant of eviction. If you use the DIY Form program for a nonpayment case, licensee holdover, or squatter holdover, the program will make the judgment and warrant for you. For other cases, visit Court Forms or use the Court locator box to call the Court to see where to get a form.

After the warrant of eviction is signed, you can hire a Marshal, Sheriff or Constable to take steps to evict the tenant. There is a fee for this.

 

Notice of Eviction

The Marshal, Sheriff or Constable will deliver a Notice of Eviction to the tenant. This tells the tenants that unless they move within 14 days, the Marshal will evict them. If the tenant owns a manufactured home in a mobile home park, the tenant will get more notice before having to move. If the tenants do not move out, they will be evicted. The eviction must take place on a business day, during the day. The tenant can ask the court to stop the eviction by making an Order to Show Cause. If this happens, you will have to go back to court to fight this. The Judge will decide if the eviction will be stopped or not.

In a nonpayment case, if the tenant pays the full amount of the rent due to the court before the Marshal does the eviction, the Court must cancel the warrant. If you can prove to the court that the tenant didn’t pay the rent in bad faith, you may be able to continue with the eviction.