Have to Evict Your Charlotte Tenant, What’s Next?

Evicting a Charlotte tenant from your rental property is never fun. Most owners and property managers want to avoid eviction because it’s expensive and time-consuming. We do our best to minimize and avoid evictions whenever we can, but sometimes there is a tenant who runs into financial trouble or refuses to cooperate with us and comply with rent payments and lease terms.

Recently, all evictions in Charlotte and throughout North Carolina were paused due to the Covid-19 pandemic. As those protections for tenants expire, there may be a delay in getting your eviction heard in court. Hopefully, you’ve been able to work with your tenants through the crisis to get rent paid. If not and you decide to move forward with an eviction, you may need to prepare to wait a little longer than usual due to the backup in the courts.

We’re talking about the steps you need to take today, and encouraging you to seek professional help from a Charlotte property management company if you do get to the point where you need to evict a tenant. It’s easy to make an expensive mistake that can result in having your eviction thrown out.

Serving a Notice to Quit

Owners can evict tenants in North Carolina for nonpayment of rent, a violation of the lease agreement, illegal activity, or a refusal to leave after the lease expires and is not renewed. The most common reason that owners evict is nonpayment of rent.

The law requires that landlords provide tenants with a written notice. This is a ten-day Notice to Quit, which gives them the opportunity to pay the rent or leave the property before the eviction process begins. This requirement is found in N.C. Gen. Stat. § 42-3. If the 10 days come and go and the tenant has not paid your rent or left the property, you can file for eviction in court on the next business day.

Filing for Summons and Complaint

You’ll need to file for a Summons and Complaint at your local district court, in the country that your rental property is located. There’s paperwork that needs to be filled out and a fee that needs to be paid. Then, you’ll receive a hearing date and your tenants will be served with the Summons and Complaint and notified of the hearing.

While serving the Notice to Quit may have been easy enough, working with an attorney or a professional Charlotte property manager is the best way to protect yourself and your property at this point. You can do it on your own if you understand the process and the law, but if you don’t – you’ll need the experience and the relationships of good legal counsel.

Limit Your Charlotte Eviction Risk

Limit Your Charlotte Eviction RiskThe best way to handle an eviction is to avoid it.

A good screening process will help you place tenants who have a record of paying rent on time. Make sure you talk to former landlords and get an idea of how they behaved. One of the benefits to working with a property management company is that we have protections in place that keep you out of court.

Please contact us at AM Realty if you’re struggling with an eviction or if you want some help in avoiding them.