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Tenant did not pay August rent which is the last month of the contract, landlord went to eviction and court date is Sept 10th. Now it seems tenant moved out at August 28th before contract end date August 31st, and there is trash and a bed left in the unit, and door is left unlocked. Do landlord have right to go in and start cleaning and painting or landlord has to wait until end of court date which is Sept 10th? This is in NC,
I dont see why not. If you have no contact with tenant you can most likely can assume abandonment. Especially if they stopped paying rent a month ago, place is empty and full of trash. I would change the locks ASAP. Make sure you go ahead with the eviction to get it on his record.
Depends did the tenant return the property to you or did you go there and illegally enter the unit? If you entered without the tenants permission/your legal request to enter then you are trespassing and changing the locks could land you in a self help eviction fight. I wouldn't touch it until I have a cort order to return the property to me but I can also eat months of no income if I need to so I wouldn't be at risk of foreclosure.
It's hardly "illegal" to enter a property because you can't reach the tenant and want to make sure the property is secure. However, I would change the locks and nothing else other than wait for the court date. Take photos of the property and bring to court. OP will need the eviction to get a judgment and garnishment for monies owed.
Ask a few neighbors if they noticed anyone obviously moving.
You can secure the property by locking the door or if you don't have a key (you should) change the lock AND place a notice that the place was discovered unsecured and locked for the safety of the tenant's possession. You can not go in and start cleaning as you have an eviction in process and the courts have yet to grant you authority to take back the premise. Since you have an eviction action in progress you are asking the court to remove the tenant and give you possession so you can't also claim possession and do what you want. You can't have it both ways.
However, if the lease naturally ends on the 31st, why not just pull back the eviction and use the end of term option to retake possession? You don't need the courts as the law lets you take possession at expiration so long as you have that in the lease. If on the 1st of Sept their stuff is still inside just follow the abandonment/forfeiture option and take full possession on the 10th. But since your court date is already for the 10th, what is your attorney advising you to do, especially in light of the fact that you are asking the court to evict a person who's lease has expired and abandon the place? A judge may say you already have the legal right to possession that morning so an eviction isn't necessary.
You can secure the property by locking the door or if you don't have a key (you should) change the lock AND place a notice that the place was discovered unsecured and locked for the safety of the tenant's possession. You can not go in and start cleaning as you have an eviction in process and the courts have yet to grant you authority to take back the premise. Since you have an eviction action in progress you are asking the court to remove the tenant and give you possession so you can't also claim possession and do what you want. You can't have it both ways.
NEVER change the locks until the tenant has returned possession or your eviction case has been won. Unless you have been notified they have left, a neighbor has called, you should stay away from the property. A tenant could easily claim that you took something if you enter the property while they still have possession and it would be hard to fight that claim, even worse if they call the cops and report a robbery. There needs to be real signs of abandonment in order to use that as your reason for entry, utilities turned off or neighbors saw moving trucks a few days ago and no activity since that kind of stuff. Evictions don't actually remove tenants they give landlords the legal right of possession and demand the tenant to vacate after a set number of days, it takes 6 days before I can get a writ to have them removed here. You typically need a separate writ to have a tenant and their belongings removed which is normally a different filing with the court, though does not go before a judge again.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rabrrita
However, if the lease naturally ends on the 31st, why not just pull back the eviction and use the end of term option to retake possession? You don't need the courts as the law lets you take possession at expiration so long as you have that in the lease. If on the 1st of Sept their stuff is still inside just follow the abandonment/forfeiture option and take full possession on the 10th. But since your court date is already for the 10th, what is your attorney advising you to do, especially in light of the fact that you are asking the court to evict a person who's lease has expired and abandon the place? A judge may say you already have the legal right to possession that morning so an eviction isn't necessary.
Until a tenant returns the premises they maintain legal possession of the premises and the only time this is interrupted is by court order, eviction. Even if the lease ends on the 31st and there is no option to renew and the lease does not renew to month to month automatically you still have to evict if the tenant refuses to leave/doesn't return possession. Even if a tenant abandons the property you still go through with the legal eviction process in order to claim the damages, unpaid rent and late fees/legal fees, and legal possession. The only time you may consider stopping an eviction case is if the tenant vacates and returns possession to you, even if they don't pay the rent at that point you would have to file again for the damages.
NEVER change the locks until the tenant has returned possession or your eviction case has been won. Unless you have been notified they have left, a neighbor has called, you should stay away from the property. A tenant could easily claim that you took something if you enter the property while they still have possession and it would be hard to fight that claim, even worse if they call the cops and report a robbery. There needs to be real signs of abandonment in order to use that as your reason for entry, utilities turned off or neighbors saw moving trucks a few days ago and no activity since that kind of stuff. Evictions don't actually remove tenants they give landlords the legal right of possession and demand the tenant to vacate after a set number of days, it takes 6 days before I can get a writ to have them removed here. You typically need a separate writ to have a tenant and their belongings removed which is normally a different filing with the court, though does not go before a judge again.
Until a tenant returns the premises they maintain legal possession of the premises and the only time this is interrupted is by court order, eviction. Even if the lease ends on the 31st and there is no option to renew and the lease does not renew to month to month automatically you still have to evict if the tenant refuses to leave/doesn't return possession. Even if a tenant abandons the property you still go through with the legal eviction process in order to claim the damages, unpaid rent and late fees/legal fees, and legal possession. The only time you may consider stopping an eviction case is if the tenant vacates and returns possession to you, even if they don't pay the rent at that point you would have to file again for the damages.
^Agreed. For all anyone knows this could be a set up or ploy by the tenant to hope the LL does change the locks and then tenant has a case to go after the LL. I would not put anything past a scorned tenant (or LL for that matter) so best to keep your ducks in a row and follow through with the eviction and the law to a T.
If a premise is unsecured, a landlord has the legal rights in most states (OP state specifically) to secure the premise so long as they place a notice stating it was done and provide the key and/or access when the tenant contacts them. They can not enter for the purpose of anything but securing the property. They can not deny access afterwards, just secure and make access available when contacted.
In the OP's state, they can include in the lease a term termination that essentially ends occupancy on the last day of the lease with no protection for the tenant who holds over. No eviction is required if its in the lease except to post a notice to get out and 10 days later the landlord can throw the tenant and their stuff out. It's the tenant who has to go to court to get a stay if they feel its wrong.
The option to end the lease at termination does not apply if they are in the middle of an eviction, but they can terminate the eviction and use the end of lease option (if they had it in their lease which many NC landlords include)
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