If the tenant stops paying rent and the court agrees with the landlord that the tenant has violated the lease by not making the rent payment, the court will award possession to the landlord.  This means that the landlord can break the lease and take back possession of the apartment.  No where in that process (at least in the states that I know) does anything happen that could put something on your credit report.  This is a civil case.  It is no different that if you get a speeding ticket.  That ticket does not affect your credit (although it may affect your car insurance premium).

A landlord may chose to take the eviction to the next step and get a judgement against the tenant for the amount of money owed.  If that happens, then it does affect your credit score.  This is the same as if someone sues you for something and wins.  They have a judgement against you for the amount of money they were asking for.  That judgement will appear on your credit.

To remove an eviction from your credit, you need to remove the judgement from your credit report.  Most of the time, this requires that you come to some agreement with the person that put the judgement on your credit.  You most likely will have to pay them the amount owed.  Once you do this, you can have them file another motion in court to remove the judgement against you.  Another  less desirable way to remove a judgement would be to file bankruptcy, but that is a discussion beyond the scope of this website.

Make sure you bring everything that you may need to justify your case.  Bring a copy of the lease, a copy of the tenant’s rent statement (if you are evicting for non-payment of rent), pictures of the property, signed affidavits, and anything else that you may need to win your case.  Think like you are Perry Mason or some other fancy attorney.  What would they want in their briefcase?

Get to court early on the day of the eviction.  Hennepin County eviction court is especially busy at 8:30 in the morning and you could end up waiting 20-30 minutes in line to get through security.  If you are late, you may be able to call the clerk, but the judge will not be happy and could award the case to the tenant by default.  I see many tenants show up late.  In fact, I had one tenant call me on my cell phone and say she was in court and wondering if I was still there.  I was on the other side of town as court started almost 2 hours prior!  It was done and she lost.

Now, this may not be the nicest set of thoughts to give landlords, but here they are:  I find that most often, the tenants lose the case for themselves by talking too much or arguing with the judge.  They also will come completely unprepared or miss court completely because they are late.  You are there to win the case, don’t feel bad for them or give them another chance.  Let them shoot themselves in the foot.  In fact, I often try to say as little as possible in court to remain respectful and to let the tenant show they don’t have a clue!

If the tenant pays after the due date, charge the late fee.  Send them a late letter and tell them about the late fee.  Sometimes, the tenant will not pay the late fee.  I would not try to evict them for the late fee, which may be $25-75.  Do you really want to risk the tenant moving out or do you really want to pay the $320 eviction fee to collect $75?  I recommend that you simply keep it  on their statement.  Once the move out, deduct it from their security deposit.  If you need to evict the tenant in the future, add that amount to the eviction amount.  It is easier to slip that extra in there when they are least expecting it.

I think you should use the same technique if the tenant shorts the rent check each month or occasionally. Send them a statement showing the amount that the owe so they can’t argue in court that they don’t owe it.  If you send it every month by the 15th, it is hard for them to tell the court on month 9 they never knew about it!

Other charges such as water bills, heat bills, and security deposits can be even more difficult to address.  Whenever possible, have the tenants pay the bills directly such as the utility bills.  Then they are on the hook with the utility company, not you.  And trust me, the utility companies have rooms full of people in collections.  If you have a building where the utilities are shared or some arrangement that makes as the landlord responsible for collecting that amount, I would truly look into finding a way to split the utilities up to shift the costs to the tenants.

Some bills such as the water bill should always be paid by the owner because if left unpaid, they can be assessed against the property.  Often you don’t find those until long after the tenant and their security deposit is gone.  Just wrap that cost into the rent and keep a watch on the on-going expenses.

In Minnesota, here is the process:

1. File the eviction with the county court.  At that time, you will be given your court date and then a copy for your records and then one copy for each tenant/defendant.
2. Remember to include Jane Doe and John Doe on the eviction docs so that you can include by default anyone living at the property.
3. You now need to “serve” the tenant with the court papers, but you CAN NOT do it.  Only a neutral 3rd party can serve the documents so that there is no chance that anything funny was going on.  You typically will have 3-7 days to do this.
4. Many landlords will let a process server take care of the process.  It can cost $50-100.  In most counties, the sheriff will also serve it for $50-$100.  In remote locations like Washington or Dakota county, the $60 that the sheriff charges is cheap.  It is easier and better than trying to have my friend or handyman do it.  Plus, if there is a chance that either the tenant will argue about the eviction or they will be combative when you arrive, the sheriff is your best bet.
5. If you have an eviction attorney file your eviction paperwork, they will most likely have a legal service take care of this and then charge you.

If you choose to have someone you know serve the eviction paperwork, here is rough outline.  I recommend that you read the actual process that the court gives you, but here it is in a nut shell.

1. Process server knocks on door, someone is home.  He hands the documents to that person and get’s their name.  He files an affidavit of service and if there were more than one tenant on the eviction, you also file an affidavit of substitute service.  This means that both Suzie and John are on the eviction, but you handed the court papers to Suzie.  You need to fill out the substitute service saying that you gave John’s papers to Suzie.
2. If the tenant is not there the first time, the process server must come back a second time on another day.  Either the first or second try must be between the hours of 6:00 pm and 10:00pm to insure the person is home.  If someone is home, follow step 1.
3. If no one is home, you now can tape a copy of the tenant eviction complaint to the front door.  The process server must now fill out an affidavit of posting and an affidavit of not found.  The landlord must also then fill out an affidavit of not found and the mail a copy of the eviction documents to the tenant’s last address and then fill out an affidavit of mailing.
4. All the documents must be brought back to the court house at least 4 days prior to court (or by the deadline spelled out on the paperwork).

You can see that the process is not complicated, but it has a bunch of steps and several chances to get it wrong.  It may be worth simply paying the sheriff to serve the docs.

• If you have an emotional attachment to the tenant and it took you more than a month to decide to evict this person, you should NOT be the one in court.  As landlords, all of us do it, you will make a bad decision and give up time, money or rights in court because you feel sorry for the tenant or you just like them.  Have an attorney or another landlord represent you in court that day.  Just be available by phone and let them be the bad guy. The attorney will cost you a couple hundred dollars, pay the other landlord with a steak dinner or reciprocate and do an eviction for him (check for power of attorney requirements).
• Most courts allow the use of Jane Doe and John Doe on your eviction notice forms.  While you may know the names of everyone living at the property, this can be a good habit so that no random person claims that they live there and since they were not named on the eviction, they could make a case that you can’t get rid of them.  Plus, if you are using Jane and John Doe, you can serve anyone that answers the door (check with your local laws).
• Consider using a court mediator if your relationship with the tenant has broken down.  Do beware that most often the mediators will tend to side with the tenants.  They are not your friend or counsel.  Use them only to be a neutral 3rd party.  If you feel like the mediator is bullying you, ask for a different one or refuse to mediate any longer.
• Many tenants will think that they have some big legal defense against your eviction filing.  They will often want to speak to a free legal-aid eviction lawyer that is often available at court.  Don’t be concerned (unless you are really are doing something shady).  I have found the attorney is often reasonable and does see both sides of the argument.  Again, they are working for the tenant, so don’t let them bully you.
• When you are in front of the judge, use your best manners and behavior.  I have seen more cases lost by parties that argue with the judge.  Never talk when the judge is talking and refrain from arguing with the tenant in front of the judge.  Take it out in the hallway if you need to discuss something.

These are just some things I have learned over the years with the hundreds of evictions that I have done.

When you are ready to get started, it can feel it is your first day of high school as a freshman.  You see all the older kids walking around, knowing where they are supposed to go, and you are just trying to not make a fool of yourself.  Well, real estate investing is just like starting anything else such as a new hobby, job, school, or church.  You just have to jump in and get started.  Just as important, though, is to find people you can trust to give you solid competent advice and help you navigate this new territory.

Here are some quick tips on how to get started as a real estate investor:

1. If you haven’t already, read everything you can get your hands about all the different types of real estate investing.  Be sure, though to read books that were written in the last 5 years.  While Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill may be a classic investing book, it was also written over 20 years ago!  Also keep in mind that some of the techniques that are recommended in the books may not work or even be legal in your area.
2. Decide on what part of the real estate business you would like to work in such as:  rentals, flipping, commercial, multi-family.  Use the knowledge that you learned from the books you read to help you decide.  If you need more information, join an investors club and talk to many different investors to see what interest you and what you feel comfortable with in regards to risk.
3. Buying investment property can be tricky without the correct financing.  Find a mortgage banker that specializes in real estate investing.  Make sure you agree with his risk tolerance and feel comfortable with his recommendations.  This will be a long term relationship so make sure you like and trust him/her.  This person should preferably own investment properties of the same type that you are interested in acquiring.  This will make their advice come from practical experience and you will be able to lean on them for landlord advice.
4. When you are meeting with both the mortgage banker as well as the investors club, ask who they would recommend for a real estate agent.  Just like the mortgage banker, this person will be one of your closest advisers and they should work in and own the type of investment properties you are going after.  This person should understand the market and have your best interests in mind.
5. Once you have these two key advisers in place, get out and start looking at properties and making offers!  Many investors spend their entire time analyzing deals and never get in the game.

Starting off correctly will insure that you are on solid ground when you finally decide to purchase your first investment property.  This will help you minimize filing an eviction notice.

If you simply locked out the tenant, you as the landlord could be taken to court for breaking the lease!  You do not want that.

This document is typically served by a process server, who is a neutral third party, not involved in the property.  That insures that proper notice was given to the tenant and eliminates either party from coming back and claiming they were not notified of the problem.  The notice should spell out the lease conditions that have been violated and the amount of time that the tenant has to fix the situation.  State laws typically govern how long the tenant will have to make the corrections.  For missed rent payments , it is typically 5-10 days.  In the absence of any state laws over this particular issue, I would give the tenant 10 days to fix the problem.

If the tenant still refuses to comply with the eviction notice details or does not rectify the situation to the landlord’s satisfaction, the next step is filing an eviction against the tenant.  This initial process of serving the tenant with an eviction notice will be extremely important once you are in court.  Often a tenant will try to claim that they did not know they were violating the lease.  A landlord can then produce the notice of eviction that was served earlier showing that the landlord notified the tenant of the problem and the tenant did nothing.  This clear example of “I told you what you were doing wrong and you did not fix the problem” can show the eviction judge that you tried to work through this problem prior to filing the unlawful detainer.

Another effective way to use the notice to evict as leverage is to have your eviction attorney write and send the letter.  Although this will cost some fees, it will look much more professional, menacing, and serious when it comes from a reputable eviction attorney.

Remember that an eviction notice must be very specific in what you want the tenant to correct.  It is also, generally, not a legal document that alone will allow you to physically remove the tenant from the premises.  Used properly, though, it can be a useful tool.