There have been over 84,000 eviction filings in Houston over the past year.
This number indicates serious issues between landlords and tenants in Houston. No landlord desires to evict their tenants, but sometimes they give you no other choice. Whether it's because of missed rent payments or they've damaged your property, you need to know the right way to go about an eviction.
Today, we'll give you a short guide for handling evictions in Texas. It can be a long, difficult process, but keep reading, and you'll be able to properly navigate the law to rid yourself of a bad tenant so that you can get a good one in your rental ASAP.
Understand Eviction Laws
First and foremost, you need to understand the eviction laws in Texas. Here, you can evict a tenant for specific reasons, such as failing to pay rent, violating your lease agreement, or conducting illegal activity on your property.
If any of these things have occurred, it's important to issue the proper type of notice. Failing to do so could result in a delayed or failed eviction case.
Attempt Communication
We'll talk more about types of eviction notices next, but before you do that, it's in your best interest to try and attempt to communicate with your tenant once more. Doing your best to reason with your poor tenant and give them a chance to rectify the situation will reflect well on you throughout the process.
People fall on hard times. Good tenants can turn into bad ones. If you can't get through to your tenant, however, it's time to officially begin the eviction process by issuing a notice.
Sending an Eviction Notice
Sending your tenant a written notice will state your intention to remove them from your rental property. There are different eviction notices for different types of evictions.
If your tenant fails to pay rent, you serve them with a 3-day notice to pay or quit. If they violate your lease agreement, they're served with a 3-day notice to cure or quit. Any illegal activity may be served with a 3-day notice to vacate, which means they must leave the premises within 3 days.
Should the tenant ignore the official notice, you're free to file the eviction with the local court. When you do this, you and the tenant will both be given a court date, where you'll each state your case.
Going to Eviction Court
In preparing for the court date, it's important to gather as much evidence as possible. Whether it's photographs of damaged property, statements showing failure to pay rent, or correspondence with the tenant, quality evidence should make your eviction cut and dry.
Once you've won your case, the tenant will be issued an official eviction notice. If they're not out of your rental by the date specified, they can be forcibly removed by the authorities.
Property Managers Help with Evictions
Even when you do it all the right way, eviction can be stressful for landlords. If you want to avoid evictions at all costs, you need to thoroughly screen your tenants. To do this the right way, consider hiring property management.
At Precision Realty & Management, we can properly screen your tenants and take care of evictions if the need arises. Contact us to learn more about what we do.
