The easiest way to get rid of a troublesome tenant is if they don’t pay rent. Once you issue the three-day notice to quit, and the time passes, you generally win. What do you do if they pay rent? You can issue a sixty-day notice to quit if they have been there longer than a year and a thirty-day notice if they have been there less than a year.
One caveat: READ YOUR LEASE AGREEMENT. If the period of the lease has not expired, you cannot evict them with a 30 or 60 day notice.
What then?
Well, then you have to start looking at other things. Have they violated provisions of the lease agreement? Caused damage to the property? Have the police come calling once to often? If this is true, you MAY be able to evict them. However, proving a tenant has a dog, or an extra person in the house creates a situation where the tenant usually just sends the dog away for a while. Or has the other tenant move out temporarily. Sometimes evicting a tenant who pays rent can be a real problem.
On the other hand, if they are paying rent, you might want to just leave them alone. Take nothing personally, protect your property and other tenants, and you are usually just fine.
Attorney Wallace Francis practices landlord/tenant law in Sonoma, Marin, Lake, Mendocino, Napa, Contra Costa counties. Cities include Santa Rosa, Rohnert Park, Petaluma, Windsor, Sonoma, Napa, San Rafael, Concord, Walnut Creek, Antioch, Pittsburg, Vallejo. If you need an eviction call now.
