If you are in the rental business, sooner or later, you are going to have a renter who inexplicably stops paying rent. They may give you the run around with stories about why they can’t pay and promises of an entire payment plus late fees just around the corner. Or, they can even neglect your phone calls and refuse to answer the door if you come in person trying to collect rent. Bottom line is, when it comes to this point, such tenants will have to be served with a three day notice to leave to start the eviction process.

While you may be frustrated and seduced to take measures into your own hands, it is quite essential to follow the legal procedure for removing a non-paying tenant from your premises. Specifically, the law expressly bans you from doing the following:

Removing Locks

In no way is it illegable for you to change the locks, or install new locks on the house to “lock out” your renter. It doesn’t matter if they are months behind on their rent, have entirely trashed the property and are in violation of every provision in the lease. They are legally protected against a “lock out” and can take you to court to regain entry.

Utility Shut-offs

You can not shut off the water, gas or electricity for the purpose to make your renters to move out. Again, your renters, however far behind in rent they are, may seek legal recourse against you for this action and may collect hefty fines against you.

Taking Tenant’s Property

You may not harass your tenant into moving out. This would include illegally entering the rental unit and taking their property. Only under too specific conditions (abandonment) is a landlord enabled to remove a tenant’s property.

Physical Removal

Only the legal authority (as a rule the sheriff’s office or their agents) is allowed to remove a tenant after a writ of possession is obtained from the court and the legal waiting time has elapsed. This means that you can’t hire your own help to physically move out a occupant.

While the above list describes the main things that you, as a landlord, cannot do to make a tenant leave, it is not all inclusive. Any number of other creative strategies to harass a renter to move out are also illegal.

The only legal way to remove a tenant from your property is to go through the legal eviction process. Yes, it costs money and yes it takes time. Keep in mind that you are able to deduct the unpaid rent for the period that your renter remains in the property during the eviction process from their security deposit.

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