Do you have a tenant who isn’t following the rules and regulations laid out in your lease? When this happens it’s time to write out an eviction letter. Nobody likes kicking someone out of their home, but these things happen.
How do you write an eviction letter though? You have to do it correctly or the eviction may not legally stick and you’ll be stuck with a tenant that you no longer want.
You can’t beat around the bush. You have to clearly state the reason for the eviction.
Are you scared of messing up? Here are a few tips on how to write a well thought out eviction letter that will get legally get your point across.
Free Eviction Letter
1. Address the Letter to the Correct Tenant
When addressing the letter, you have to address the person that you created the lease with. Not their spouse, or their roommate. Them.
Your relationship is with that person, it’s the person that you’ve been doing business with all this time. The lease is also under their name, so putting any other name down would be illegal and the eviction won’t stick.
2. Notify Them of the Eviction
After you’ve addressed the eviction letter, it’s time to write down your intent. You need to clearly put that they are being evicted. Don’t leave room for confusion.
You may want to try to be a little polite so as not to add insult to injury of sorts, but being too soft won’t allow you to get your point across. The first sentence of the letter needs to be that you’re evicting them and the date that they are to vacate the premises. Make sure the address of the premises is in the sentence as well.
3. Give the Reason of the Eviction
The second sentence of the letter will be your reason for evicting the tenant. There are a variety of reasons why you may be doing this. They could have stopped paying rent, or violated the lease.
Here are just a few reasons:
Failure to Pay Rent
Failure to pay rent is one of the most common reasons why you may be writing an eviction letter. In this case, you will use a three-day, pay or leave notice.
This will give them three days to pay the rent up to date or they will have to leave. If they do pay the rent, then the eviction ends. If they don’t, the process will continue.
Violating Lease Terms
Violating lease terms would be something like having a pet even though you clearly agreed in the lease that pets weren’t allowed. This is another case where you would give them three days to correct the issue or leave the premises.
Serious Violations and Illegal Behavior
For serious violations, you still give them a three-day notice but this doesn’t give them three days to correct the issue. This gives them three days to get out without exception. Reasons, why you may give this notice, are:
- They’re growing or selling illegal drugs on the property
- They’ve caused a large amount of damage
- Used the property for another illegal purpose
- They continued to cause other tenents issues after being told to stop multiple times.
In the second sentence of the eviction letter, you will clearly write down which one of these violations they are guilty of.
4. Be Very Clear and Specific
You’ll need to write down their violation in great detail. For example, if you’re kicking them out due to failure to pay rent, you’ll need to write down the dates that they’ve failed to pay, and how much they currently owe to stay at the property.
If they’ve damaged the property put that you visited the premises on a certain date and noticed damage like burn marks, holes in the walls, torn carpet, etc.
5. Include the Date They Have to Leave
Again, in most cases, you’ll give a three-day notice, but you need to include the date that they have to leave the premises. Make sure this date meets the legal terms of the state you’re in. It’s typically different for each state.
The date will depend largely on the original term in the lease, and their violation. For example, if they have a 30-day lease you usually have to give them the rest of the current month and the month after that to get out.
6. Make a Copy of It For Your Records
Sometimes the tenet will leave smoothly but other times if they feel like the eviction is unjust, they’ll take it to court. It doesn’t happen too often, but you have to be prepared.
It’s for this reason that you need to make a copy of the letter that you write for your records.
7. Serve the Eviction to Them
Once you’ve finally written your letter, it’s time to serve the eviction. In some states, you’re required to physically hand the tenant the letter. If they aren’t home, you’re allowed to give it to a family member or roommate.
In other states, it’s perfectly acceptable for you to pin it on the door for them to find the next time they leave the property or when they come home.
Your Guide on Writing a Fair Eviction Letter
Most of the time, landlords don’t like to evict tenants but these things happen from time to time. When the tenant fails to pay rent or makes a violation on the lease, it gives you no choice.
Clearly state in the eviction letter why they’re being evicted so you don’t run into legal trouble.
