6 Tips For Surviving Your First Tenant Eviction In Sacramento

how to evict tenants in sacramento

When tenants stop paying rent or begin violating the terms of their lease, you always have the option to begin an eviction. Although, it is important that you understand evictions are not always the best option and you should try to avoid them. Still, there are times when eviction is your best option and when that happens, your friends here at Alpha Property Management have got you covered. 

1. Make Sure You Have A Fair And Legal Reason

Before you do anything, you need to at least make sure that you have a strong legal footing or ground to stand on. There is no reason to disrupt the lives of your tenants and yourself by even broaching the topic of eviction without knowing for sure that you have the right to evict. Make sure that you are staying up-to-date on current eviction laws because as you know they can change quickly as they did with COVID. 

2. Attempt To Reason With Your Tenants

In many cases, you would be wise to attempt to negotiate, set up a payment plan, or reason with your tenants before pursuing a legal eviction. Hopefully, you will be able to work something out between yourself and your tenants that won’t require you to go to court at all. However, if you cannot come to an agreement that is mutually beneficial to you then you still want to have evidence for the courts that you made every attempt to resolve the issues peacefully.

2. Serve Your Notices

You cannot simply evict someone once you have decided to begin proceedings. Instead, you must serve a series of notices that explain to tenants which terms of the lease they are in violation of and give them ample time to make necessary corrections. You must serve these notices by the book if you want to be granted the right to evict by the courts.

3. Avoid Non-Essential Communication With Tenants

During an eviction, it is very common for tenants to become extremely heightened in their emotions and sometimes even dangerous. Often, frequent communication between the tenant and the landlord that is pursuing the eviction can lead to negative or even unsafe interactions. For this reason, it is important that you limit your communication with your tenants during the eviction process to only what is absolutely necessary. Keep in mind, that continuing to communicate with your tenants more than necessary can be interpreted as harassment so the bare minimum is best.

4. Keep Your Emotions In Check

It can be all too easy for people to become upset during an eviction. Even as the landlord that is pursuing the eviction, it is very possible that you will reach a heightened emotional state. It’s important that you focus on being the bigger person and not allowing your emotions to steer you during this time. Remember this is a straightforward legal matter that requires you to keep a cool head and work from a place of logic.

5. Keep Clear And Consistent Documentation

When it comes to communicating with your tenants leading up to and during the eviction process, it is extremely vital that you have strong documentation of everything that is said and when it is sad. When you submit evidence to the court, you will want to show that you did everything in your power to resolve the issue amicably and that the tenants are the ones being unreasonable or unlawful. The last thing you want to do is get into a “he said, she said” situation in the court so keep all of your communication to written forms like texting and email.

6. Begin Searching For New Tenants ASAP

Finally, once you begin the eviction proceedings and are confident that you are about to have an empty unit, it is important that you get to work to begin finding your next tenant. Although you may need to do some construction, cleaning, and have new pictures taken you can at least begin drafting your new address so that they will be ready to go as soon as possible. Furthermore, you can begin going through your waiting list of new tenants and putting the word out that you will have an empty unit available soon.

Evictions are one of the most unfortunate parts of being a landlord. However, they can be a thousand times easier with the help of a professional property manager like Alpha Property Management on your side guiding the process. To learn more about how Alpha Property Management can assist you with evictions in Sacramento or to request a quote for property management services, give us a call today.