A victim of domestic abuse who fears there is an immenent threat against the tenant or his/her children may terminate the lease under certain conditions:

• The tenant must provide advanced notice to the landlord in writing.
• The notice must state that the tenant needs to end the lease and why.
• The notice must state the date the tenant plans to move out.
• This notice must be delivered prior to the tenant moving out.
• The tenant must supply the landlord a copy of the order for protection or no contact order.
• The tenant is responsible for the rent payment for the entire month in which the termination date falls plus an amount equal to one month’s rent.  These amounts must be paid prior to the termination date on the letter.

The tenant may, at any time before possession has been delivered (means the end of the day judgment is stayed to, not physical transfer of possession), redeem the tenancy and be restored to possession by paying to the landlord or bringing to court the amount of the rent that is in arrears, with interest (rare, but occasionally a lease will include an interest clause), costs of the action (typically the filing fee plus the fee to the process server), and an eviction attorney’s fee not to exceed $5 (not a misprint, as the $5 has not been changed for over a century), and by performing any other covenants of the lease. Minnesota. Stat. 504B.291 subd. 1 (a).

THERE ARE 5 BASIC RULES REGARDING THE RIGHT TO REDEEM:

1. The right to redeem only exists in actions for “nonpayment of rent” and applies to both residential and commercial tenants.
2. The court has no authority to deny this right. The judge can, however, limit the tenant‟s ability to redeem the premises by either issuing an immediate writ or limiting how long the writ is stayed for (7 days or less). See number #3 below.
3. The court has discretion to allow the tenant up to 7 days to redeem. However, the tenant‟s right to redeem is only available during the time the writ is stayed. And absent an agreement by the parties, the writ cannot be stayed longer than 7 days and must be based on a finding of substantial hardship. M.S. 504B.291, subd 1(a).
4. The right to redeem does NOT exist in actions filed ONLY for “breach of lease”.
5. The right to redeem MAY exist in cases involving claims of both nonpayment of rent and breach of lease. For example, if the claims are contested, the court must first determine the breach of lease issue: M.S. 504B.285, subd. 5.
1. If the landlord wins the breach of lease issue, the nonpayment issue becomes moot;
2. If the landlord loses the breach of lease issue, then the case becomes a standard nonpayment of rent case and the tenant would then have the right to redeem.

• How long the family member has lived with you may change how you can force them out of the house.  Evicting a 18 year old child that has always lived with you may be different than evicting a brother that was supposed to stay for a week and has now been there 6 months.
• If the family member has some ownership in the home, this can change things.  Even if the family member does not have ownership rights, but has historically been the one paying the mortgage or the main bread winner, again this eviction can be difficult.
• In some jurisdictions, if the family member can be considered a guest, you can simply have them removed by the police for trespassing.  In Minnesota, if the family member does not pay rent or utilities, he won’t be considered a tenant, but may be considered a “licensee” because you originally gave him permission to stay in your property.  You will actually need to serve him with a notice to vacate also called a notice to quit, which should give him 14 days to leave.  If at the end of that time he does not leave, you will need to evict him as a hold-over tenant.
• Inform the police or courts immediately if you have reason to fear for your safety before or after you start the eviction process.  This may get worse before it gets better.  You may need to file for a restraining order prior to filing for the eviction.
• When it comes time to file the eviction and/or go to court, stick to the facts only.  Why are you evicting them?  If it is for non-payment of rent, than do not talk about how they stole your favorite music CD.  Just keep to the fact and take the high road.  This will be evident to the court if the family member tries to draw you into a fight or argument in court.

In the end, you should do research on eviction laws in your area.  These can vary wildly and you should understand your rights and your family members rights.  I would recommend that you consult competent eviction attorneys to help you weed through the case and give you sound eviction advice one what your chances, risks, and challenges will be.

When it is finally time for you to evict a tenant with no lease, you need to put together a strong case because at the end of the day, without anything in writing, this could be a terrible argument about he said/she said in court.  Here are some ideas on how a landlord should prepare his case:

• If the disagreement is over how much the rent actually is supposed to be, historical records are going to be your best evidence of what was originally agreed upon.  An example is that if the tenant had been paying $500 for 6 months and then starts paying $400 because he thinks that is the correct lease amount, the 6 months of history can be good evidence that was the agreement.  Bring rent statements, bank account records and anything else you can find that will show a history.
• If the eviction is regarding non-payment of rent, but the tenant is disputing this, you may be able to coast through this as they will need to bring their evidence such as canceled checks or payment receipts showing that they paid you.  If you had previously been mailing statements, bring that up in front of the judge, because the tenant should have brought it to your attention immediately if the statement was incorrect.
• When the eviction is about what you believe to be a lease violation, such as pets in the apartment or other items, this will be much more difficult to prove that you did not agree to this.  If this is a multi-unit building, you may be able to show that other tenants understood this rule was in affect by getting copies of their leases or signed affidavits from the tenants.  You may want to consult with an eviction attorney about this case as it can be difficult.  You can add to your documentation by writing a letter to the tenant prior to the eviction explaining the violation and giving them a chance to remedy the issue.  This can show the judge that you tried to work through the issue, but the tenant refused.
• Criminal matters can also be difficult to evict for unless you have police reports showing a consistent problem.  You may need multiple incidents if the calls are minor (parties).  Major items, such as drug sales or prostitution, should be dealt with immediately on the first offense.  Get some eviction advice from the local community service officer at the police station when dealing with criminal evictions.
• Just like you are using the history to your advantage, don’t let it work against you.  If you verbally agreed to allow the tenant to paint instead of paying rent, that will come out in court.  Make sure you have not made any agreements like that.

Evicting a tenant with no lease can be much more difficult than a tenant with a lease.  You just need to make sure that you have a solid case put together before ever filing the eviction.

When the sides can reach an agreement and there is some disagreement over the issues of the case (such as condition of the property, lease violations, or even payment discrepancies), the judge will have the parties come back at a later date for a trial.  This is not a trial with a jury or anything fancy like that.  It is most often a larger block of time that both parties can argue their case and bring evidence to support their claims.  So how do you defend yourself in eviction court during a trial?

• Bring lots of evidence.  Pictures, receipts, leases, and anything else that can substantiate your position.  I see so many tenants lose cases because they are unprepared.  They can’t find the lease.  They have no rent payment receipts.
• Just like a traditional trial, the side that presents their argument the best, wins.  Rarely is there a huge fact uncovered in court.  It is mostly open to interpretation.  Prepare your case the night before, just like an eviction attorney does.  When the other side makes a statement, ask them politely to prove it with documentation.  If the tenant says he paid the rent, ask for the receipts.
• Just like a referee in a game, the judge is human.  He can be influenced by the attitude and impressions of others, although he is supposed to be impartial.  I have seen many tenants start to argue with the judge and lose the case because he is sick of them.
• Be on time to court, wear decent clothes, but look the part.  If you are wealthy and the tenant is poor, don’t wear your $2000 suit and $10,000 watch to court.

Eviction court can be intimidating, but it is very manageable if you believe in your case.

So, maybe you are fed up with what your tenant it doing.  It could be that they are simply not paying their rent.  It could be that they are having lease violations.  Most of the time, you can simply file the eviction yourself and everything goes according to plan.  Here are some times when I advise that you should consider having an evictions attorney take care of this process for you:

• If the eviction is for anything other than documented criminal activity or non-payment of rent, I would advise that you get an attorney.  These cases often degrade into a he said/she said argument that goes no where and typically with not enough evidence, the tenant wins.  An attorney will make sure you have ample evidence prior to court.  Plus, if the tenant decides to get an eviction lawyer, then you are loaded for bear with your legal counsel.
• Sometimes, the tenant will actually bring a action to withhold rent against the tenant for failure to perform maintenance or upload a part of the lease.  Because the tenant brought the suit, you are the defendant, and unfortunately as the big bad landlord.  You don’t want the court to be forcing you to open your checkbook and make unnecessary repairs simply because the tenant claims they are needed.
• While I consistently advise against this, landlords still seem to do verbal rental agreements in Minnesota.  I can’t stress enough how bad of an idea this is.  You are leaving so much of the interpretation of your intent up to the court to decided.  Did you mean for the rent to be $500 or $400?  Prove it!  When you are evicting a tenant with no lease, you should definitely consult with an eviction attorney.

While this is not an exhaustive list, I would error on the side of getting an attorney whenever I felt like the eviction does or could have some problems.

I did the best job I could.  I made mistakes and learned from them.  You could say that I learned how to be a landlord at the school of hard knocks!  Then it happened, a tenant stopped paying her rent.  I needed to do an eviction.  I found that there was even less information out there on how to do an eviction.  I didn’t know anyone that had done an eviction, there were zero resources on the internet for me in Minnesota, and even the court website was pretty bad.

After doing many evictions now, here are some thoughts that I have on where to get good eviction advice:

• Probably the most important item is to gain the knowledge before you need it.  In the military, they train the soldiers with live weapons and even do simulated combat training.  This is so that when they actually do enter combat, they have some experience to deal with what they encounter.  Doing evictions should be the same way.
  • Head down to eviction court, get a copy of the documents that you need to fill out for an eviction notice.  Talk to the workers at the counter, ask them about the process, how long it takes, what it costs, what mistakes are common.  Suck up info from them.
  • Find out when the next eviction court date is and attend.  These are typically open to the public so just sit in back and listen to what the judge asks, what the landlord says, and what the tenant does.
• When it it is time to do your first eviction, you may want to consider hiring an eviction lawyer.  This person will go through and do all the work for you, but ask them to include you in the process (you are paying them, so they should be willing to do this).  If your jurisdiction requires a tenant eviction letter, have the attorney give you a copy once it is sent.
• Whether you do the eviction yourself or hire a lawyer, make sure to save copies of everything so that you have something to refer to later when you have to do your next eviction.  Filling out that printable eviction notice, will always be confusing if you don’t have a reference to look back at.
• If possible, find another experienced landlord that you could take to lunch to pick his brain about doing an eviction.  He would probably be happy to share his stories and lessons learned.

Doing an eviction can be an intimidating process.  Finding places that you can get good eviction advice is an important first step in making it easier.

Regardless, now it is time to do an eviction.  Take some time to learn more about how the process works.  Here is an example of the steps involved in a Minnesota eviction:

1. Go online to the county website.  Download the free printable eviction notice.
2. Take the required paperwork down the to county courthouse, pay the fees, wait for the eviction notice to be prepared.
3. Once it is prepared, you need to have the documents served.  This must be done properly and by a neutral 3rd party.  I often use a legal courier company because they specialize in doing this for attorneys often.  They understand the process.
4. Now you wait up to 2 weeks for the court date.
5. At court you go before the judge and explain why you want this tenant evicted.  The tenant will most likely argue with  you and hopefully you can work out a compromise.  If the facts of the case are in dispute, the judge may order you both to a trial to decide who is correct.

While there is a lot of simple administrative busy work that goes into filing an eviction, it needs to be done properly.  Additionally, it takes time to go to the courthouse to file the eviction and then return for a court date.  All of these reasons may be a good idea for you to consider using an eviction lawyer.  These professionals do dozens of evictions each month.  They understand the process, legalities, and any loopholes that the tenant may use to slip out.

Having an eviction lawyer do your eviction can also prevent you from believing the same stories and promises that the tenant has been telling you.  The eviction lawyers have heard every story.  They can remain impartial.

If you are too busy or too nervous about evicting your tenant, let some eviction lawyers handle it.  You simply turn over the information to the attorney and let them do everything.  You get a call after the court date telling you about the outcome.  You don’t have to waste your time running all over and you don’t need to have any confrontation or negotiations with your tenant.  What a great way to get this messy situation cleaned up!

Several people were looking for a printable eviction notice or a free printable eviction notice.  I am not really sure what they are looking for, but here are some thoughts about their line of thinking and the problems with it:

An eviction notice form is specific to the county or legal jurisdiction that you live in.  I would be very suspicious of a generic one that I found on the internet.  How do you know that it was created with all the legal requirements for your area?  Plus, these documents are usually free at the county courthouse or you can download them from their website.

Using an eviction notice that was not generated by your local jurisdiction could invalidate your claim in court.  A tenant or their attorney could simply show the judge that you did not follow the law when you filed the eviction.  Unfortunately, judges love procedural mistakes and I am sure they would throw out your case in a second.  This will be a huge frustration causing you to lose the money you spend filing the first eviction, not to mention the extra time it will take to get the tenant out of the property.

Alternatively, if you are simply looking for an eviction letter, which is essentially a warning document that you can send to the tenant to tell them what they need to fix or do, then I would be fine using something I found on the internet.   I would still compare it against the local legal requirements for your area if this is a required part of evictions in your area.

When using the eviction notice as a simple warning letter, you can actually find an eviction notice in Microsoft word.  You can go to www.office.microsoft.com, search for Word Templates for the version of Word that you are using.  Put Eviction into the search box and it should bring up a couple templates that you can use.  How easy is that?

Before downloading a printable eviction notice from the internet and assuming it just will work for your needs, check with your local courthouse to confirm it would be OK to use a non-legal binding form like this.

An eviction letter can mean different things in different areas.  In some areas, this is actual eviction notice letter, in others it is simply the official notice to a tenant that eviction is eminent if they do not remedy the lease violation.  Here are some thoughts about the eviction letter.

• Stop down at the local courthouse where the eviction is filed to understand all the requirements of the eviction process.  If you have properties in different counties or different states, the process may be different.  Make sure you understand each jurisdiction.  You can find printable eviction notices at your local courthouse website.
• Your location may require a Notice to Quit which is different than an eviction letter.  This is typically used where the eviction letter is the formal process of eviction, then the Notice to Quit is the warning.
• Be sure you understand the eviction process time line required.  Some places allow you to file for an eviction immediately, others make you wait 30 days.
• Have an action plan for both the property and tenant before you write and send the eviction letter.  Are you OK if the tenant simply resolves the lease violation or do you really want to push them out of property?  If the tenant calls you when they receive the notice of eviction, what are you prepared to tell them?  Remember that they forced you into this situation and you should not back down or take more excuses.  Stick to your guns!
• Write the letter in a professional tone.  Do not include any hearsay or rumors.  Stick to the simple facts that you could prove in court (you may have to).  Refer to the lease agreement when possible to prove your argument.  Explain what the tenant needs to do to remedy the situation.  Also include what and when your next action will be, which may include filing the eviction.
• Have the letter sent via certified mail or have it served by a process server so that you have proof that the tenant has received it.  If you hand deliver it yourself, have a witness with you and have that witness sign an affidavit stating that they saw you hand the letter to the tenant.  Document the date and time.
• If you are not comfortable with the eviction process, you may want to consider finding eviction lawyers that can handle your case and tenant.

Using a tenant eviction letter is a less expensive, quicker, and often very affective way to get compliance out of your tenant.