How to evict unpaid tenants

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Notorious villains occupy your apartment and refuse to move out - a very real situation if you are not lucky with tenants. The life hacker is in a hurry to help and understands how and in what cases unscrupulous tenants can be evicted from the rented property.

When is it legal to evict a tenant

Deciding to rent out an apartment and find tenants is not so difficult. But what if tenants stop paying and refuse to make contact? What about the people who have taken over your own home?

The most important thing in the issue of eviction is the form of concluding a lease. If you agreed with the tenants in words (verbally discussed the conditions, shook hands and handed over the keys), then in fact they live in your apartment "on bird rights." But when a written contract is concluded, one should act exclusively in accordance with the law. A life hacker will consider both options.

How to evict tenants without a written contract

In the absence of a written contract for the commercial lease of the premises, the tenants have no rights to be in it. And the eviction procedure will be extremely easy. If tenants refuse to leave voluntarily, there are two ways to proceed.

• Come to the apartment with a demand to immediately vacate the illegally occupied premises. Call the police (or invite a district police officer) and find several witnesses (neighbors in the staircase will approach). But remember, the police will not help you to evict the tenants: the police will enforce law and order.
• You have the right to change the locks and take the tenants' belongings to the staircase. For the legality of this process, invite the district police officer and take the documents for the apartment with you.

How to evict contract tenants

According to the Constitution of the Russian Federation, no one can be deprived of their home arbitrarily. According to the lease agreement (aka lease agreement) for your tenants, this is your apartment. And they have more rights to terminate it: if the tenant can terminate the lease at his will at any time, the owner does so only through the court and if there are good reasons.

On what grounds can tenants be evicted?

According to the law, negligent tenants can be evicted under the following conditions.

• They owed more than six months rent. Provided that no other payment terms are specified in your agreement.
• They have already forgotten to pay the rent twice - if the lease is concluded for less than a year.
• They spoil or destroy your apartment.
• The apartment is going to be declared dilapidated or unfit for habitation.
• They are using housing for other purposes. For example, they do not live in an apartment, but set up a warehouse or shop in it.
• They systematically violate the rights of neighbors. This can be regular wild parties or throwing toxic trash into the staircase. Police officers can fix such violations: later protocols on administrative violations will help in court proceedings.

However, in the last two cases, the landlord must first ask the tenants to correct the violations. But if after that they remain inactive, the issue of eviction can begin to be resolved in court.

How to evict tenants through the court

It is necessary to draw up a statement of claim to the district court at the location of the rented apartment. The application contains information about you, your apartment, the identity of the tenants, the demand for their eviction and its justification. Also attached are photocopies of documents confirming your application: a passport, a contract of sale (or inheritance) of an apartment, a lease agreement with tenants and confirmation of your claims to them. The state duty is paid additionally.

Alas, it will not be possible to quickly resolve the issue through the court: the time for consideration of the case is up to two months. And within a month after the decision is made, tenants will have a month to file an appeal. The judgment will be enforced for another two months.

In addition, the judge can give the tenant a year to rectify the violations you complained about. For example, in order to bring in the proper form spoiled living space.

Why a tenant cannot be evicted by force

It would seem, why collect endless documents for court hearings and patiently wait for the execution of the court decision, when you can ask a couple of strong men to talk to the hard-core tenants "in an amicable way"? Alas, this will lead to bad consequences.

• Self-eviction of tenants (for example, if you take their things out into the street, change the locks on the doors) can qualify as arbitrariness. This is article 19.1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation, according to which you face a fine in the amount of 100 to 300 rubles.
• And if, in the process of the above actions, you also cause significant damage to the property of the residents, this arbitrariness is already under the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. That is, a real crime with a possible fine of up to 80,000 rubles or arrest up to 6 months.

The police will also not be able to help you with the eviction issue. They have the right only to record the fact of violation of the rights and interests of neighbors, if the tenants, for example, staged another party. But it is beyond the competence of the police to free living space from them.

Therefore, if you cannot agree with unscrupulous tenants, it is better not to overdo it: choose legal solutions to the problem.