It looks like I will to server my tenant with a 3 day notice if I do not receive rent tomorrow.
I went to my county web site and they have a form I can fill out.
Do you I just fill out the form and hand it to the tenant or leave it on the door?
Do i need to submit to the county too?
What happens after three days?
You need to contact your local court and find out the specific procedures for your area. If you screw it up, you’ll have to start all over.
It’s a little late to be learning how to do this. You should have learned your LL/tenant laws and eviction procedures prior to getting your first property.
It’s different state to state. In my state, it is VERY hard to evict a tenant for not paying the rent. It’s not that it can’t be done, it’s just that it is very complicated. I don’t even remember all of the steps. When you serve a 3 day notice, you must place it in a conspicuous place on the door and you should not fold it because the tenant may dispose of it under the belief that it is a solicitation. You must also mail them their 3 day notice at the same time you post it. You must keep a copy of the notice, which has an area at the bottom where the person who posts the 3 day notice must certify that they have taken the above steps.
I would then wait the 3 days to receive a response from the tenant. If I don’t hear from them in a few days, I would hire an eviction attorney. There are usually attorneys that specialize in evictions, and can therefore handle them for a low price (it’s still around $850 if memory serves) and it usually takes about 3-6 weeks but it might take 3 months, if the tenant knows how to slow the eviction process down.
IRO,
Thank you for your response. If I do not receive the payment today, I had planned on going down there and trying to hand it directly to the tenant. If there are not there, I will post it and also mail them.
Hopefully, that will be enough to receive payment or for them to move out. The tenant said they had mailed two money orders, one for Sept and one for Oct. If that is the case, the tenant should be able produce the receipts as proof.
The tenant is an older lady and I do not get the impression is is very familiar with the eviction process.
Get the Nolo Press book, “Evictions”
All it takes is not following one procedure correctly and it could be months of hard work out the window.
I don’t know about your area but here, the clerks are real jerks if even one thing is not correct on any of the paperwork.
Do not accept “proof” that she mailed a money order. The rent is paid when you get your money, not when the check is in the mail.
If a money order got lost, it is her problem to get it replaced, not yours.
It’s easy to fill out the carbon to show that the money order was made out to the landlord and to make the actual check out to pay someone else. Perhaps a nice new big screen TV to enjoy while lying to the landlord and trying to get him to accept an empty promise instead of cash for the rent.