How to evict a tenant (Fairbanks: apartment, rental, homeowners insurance)

[Chip N Sawbones]

I called a property management company today and they said they could handle the eviction. Thank you all for the advice. I hope this works out.

[gobrien]

You really do not need an attorney because Alaska Tenant law is fairly straightforward. A lawyer will not

give you any kind of edge. The person who has your authority to evict must follow a few straightforward

rules. First, find out exactly how much rent is owed as of the date that you will be serving the 7 day

notice to quit when it is firmly affixed to the door of the rental property. Make sure the notice is

completely accurate-dates, dollar amounts, names. Do not include any late fees or anything else but

rent for the amount owed. Once the 7 days are up and rent has not been paid, file the Forcible Eviction

and Detainer paperwork (available online). File it with the appropriate court in Fairbanks. If the tenant

offers you a payment plan, only accept it if you realize that by accepting, you have nullified everything

done legally prior to the payment plan implementation. If the eviction proceeds to court, it's pretty

simple. The tenant owes the money and the judge will evict as long as you have done your part

properly. Most likely, the tenant will leave during the 7 day notice to quit period. Do not allow any

harassment of the tenant or turn off any utilities. If you do have to file an eviction case (FED) with the

court, the paperwork will have to be served properly. It's best to let a law enforcement officer or process

server to hand deliver it to the tenant. Don't have it mailed or attached to the door like the 7 day notice

to quit was affixed. You need to be able to prove it was properly served and seen by the tenant.

[Dakster]

Gobrien - Sounds like Alaska has a pretty fast eviction process. You also make a very good point for a landlord in that if possible you should make tenants responsible for their own utilities, that way if they don't pay the utility bill they get shut off by the company and not by you. I've seen some rental agreements where water and heat are included in the rent.

[Metlakatla]

It's really not as simple as some people make it sound, and the eviction process isn't necessarily fast. There are tenants out there who know every trick in the book regarding stalling for time, etc. Many of them rent with the intention of not paying.

I don't think the question here was whether the OP needs an attorney. A good property management company should be able to handle this.

[1stimestar]

Originally Posted by Dakster

Gobrien - Sounds like Alaska has a pretty fast eviction process. You also make a very good point for a landlord in that if possible you should make tenants responsible for their own utilities, that way if they don't pay the utility bill they get shut off by the company and not by you. I've seen some rental agreements where water and heat are included in the rent.

Heat is often included in the rent because if renters get it turned off due to non payment all your plumbing can be frozen leaving you with an expensive mess to repair.

[RayinAK]

Originally Posted by 1stimestar

Heat is often included in the rent because if renters get it turned off due to non payment all your plumbing can be frozen leaving you with an expensive mess to repair.

Also, because the AK laws relating to tenant and landlord makes heat and water mandatory. However, in some cases a landlord can pass the cost of heating and water to the tenant under a lease. This happens sometimes when the landlord rents a 1-family house (for example). But in this case the amount of cash for water, including hot water for showers and such, and heat, is deducted from the monthly rent payment. The same can be done if renting a home the tenant wants to buy.

[Dakster]

1stimestar and RayinAK - Thanks for the learning lesson. Points for me to ponder. As I may be a tenant, renting something, soon. And then at one point I hope to reverse that role.

We don't have frozen pipe problems where I currently live. Although heat and humidity can damage things quite nicely as well. However, no one down here includes anything in the rent. Some apartment buildings MIGHT include water and basic cable.

Evictions in my area can take 3-4 months if you fast track it, which is what I meant by it seemed fast in AK. I've seen some take so long that the lease ended before they could be evicted. A couple of friends of mine went thru that... One has quit renting his house out and the other has had good tenants since the first nightmare tenant.

As a landlord it makes you wonder whether it is better for a month to month lease or a yearly lease. Month to month you can just say you are not renewing and the tenant needs to leave - but there are downsides to that as well.

[Metlakatla]

I'm not sure that heat or water themselves are "mandatory." There are plenty of dry cabins for rent around Alaska. Rentals have to have a source of heating, but landlords aren't required to pay fuel bills.

[RayinAK]

Perhaps not "mandatory" in all instances, but in some others there is no way out of it. For example, a landlord has an apartment complex. In this case it's impossible for the landlord to ask for an individual fee from each tenant to pay for the heating fuel the boiler uses to heat the entire complex. The same thing for the cost of cold/hot water.

In the case of dry cabins, the tenant agrees to pay for the cost of heating, and also agrees that no water is provided with the cabin. But lets say that it's not a dry cabin and the landlord pays for both heating and cold/hot water, then the rent would be a lot higher.

Such arrangements are legal under a lease. The same can be said for a landlord renting a single or more homes. In this case he or she can draw a lease where the tenants pay for the cost of heating and other utilities, but not too many landlords are going to get in such a mess. If one or more tenants fail to pay for heat, frozen pipes and the rest could be quite costly.

The bottom line is that a lease that has been crafted in adherence to the AK law is the most difficult to argue against in court.
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The section of the Alaska Uniform Residential Landlord & Tenant Act that covers water and heat is:
Sec. 34.03.100. Landlord to maintain fit premises.

[Metlakatla]

Again, thi sstatement

Also, because the AK laws relating to tenant and landlord makes heat and water mandatory.

is false. Rental properties have to have a WAY for tenants to heat them such as an intact, functional furnace, etc.; landlords aren't required to pay the heating bill as inferred in your previous post. Sure, it makes sense for those who own apartment buildings to charge a base rate for heat, but again, it's not a legal requirement.