How Long Does The Eviction Process Take In Alabama?

Articles Tagged with: Alabama Evictions Lawyers

How Long Does the Eviction Process Take in Alabama?

Though this is a topic we cover fairly regularly, we feel as if eviction is something that we are routinely asked about and that deserves careful consideration. Evicting a tenant in the wrong way can have dire legal repercussions for the landlord and can result in outstanding fines, loss of rights to the property, and a significant amount of headache. To avoid any consequences of a wrongful conviction, you need to take all the proper steps to get someone off your property which, unfortunately, can take a while. In the best case scenario, an eviction can take as little as 19 days, but in the worst case, it can take months. How long it takes depends on when you decide to respond, what steps you take, and how the tenant responds to your actions.

Unlawful Detainer Versus Failure to Vacate

In Alabama, a landlord can pursue one of two routes to eviction: unlawful detainer or failure to vacate. Unlawful detainer proceedings (which would be categorized as a civil eviction) require that the landlord give the tenant written notice to vacate the property. Once the notice period has expired, and if the tenant has yet to vacate the premises, the landlord can then proceed to file a lawsuit against the tenant.

Failure to vacate proceedings (criminal proceedings) require that the landlord provide the tenant with 10 days written notice to vacate the premises. This type of eviction may only take place in the case of nonpayment of rent. If the tenant does not leave the property after receiving the 10-day warning, the landlord may turn to the courts for intervention. The courts may charge the tenant with a misdemeanor as well as up to $25 for every day he or she remains on the property—in addition to the rent owed.

In the event of an unlawful detainer case, the eviction is not over after the notice period expires. Rather, the process just begins. If the tenant fails to vacate the property on his or her own upon the expiration of the notice period, the landlord must then do the following to regain rights to his or her property:

Serve a seven-, 14-, or 30-Day Notice. To begin the eviction process, a landlord must submit written notice in person or via a process server that details the reasons for the eviction. A seven-day notice is acceptable in instances of non-payment of rent. A 14-day notice is required for breaking the terms of the lease, and a 30-day notice is mandatory in the cases of month-to-month leases. During the notice period, tenants are given an opportunity to “cure” the indiscretion (pay rent or fix the issue). If the problem is outstanding rent, and if the tenant pays the amount due or a lesser amount agreed upon by the tenant and landlord, the notice will become void.
File and Serve a Summons and Complaint for Unlawful Detainer. If the notice period passes without the tenant attempting to cure the issue, the landlord may file and serve a Summons and Complaint for Unlawful Detainer. Once this notice has been served, the tenant has up to 14 days to respond for non-payment of rent and up to seven days for all other issues. Failure for the tenant to respond will likely result in the judge ruling in favor of the landlord.
A Hearing May Take Place. If the tenant does respond or object to the notice, a hearing will be held in front of a judge. Both parties will be given an opportunity to explain their side of the story. Ultimately, however, it is up to the landlord to prove that notice was served legally and that the tenant breached his or her duty.
A Judgement Will Be Made. If the judgement is in favor of the landlord, the tenant will have seven days to appeal the ruling. Once the seven-day appeal period passes, the landlord can obtain a Writ of Possession, at which point a sheriff may forcibly remove the tenant.
Tenant May Still Appeal the Decision: If the tenant appeals the decision, he or she may remain in the home but must pay rent during the process.
Disposing of Possessions: If the tenant loses the appeal and leaves possessions of the property, the landlord is required, by law, to wait 14 days before disposing of the items.

As you may have gleaned from this post, the eviction process in Alabama is relatively drawn out, and it can take a landlord weeks to months and a considerable amount of resources to get a tenant off his or her property. For this reason, the best route to eviction is to work it out with the tenant. More often than not, tenants are willing to leave once they realize a landlord does not want them on the property. Unfortunately, if a tenant is unwilling to vacate the property or come to an agreement, the landlord may have no choice but to follow the above steps.

If you rent property in Alabama, the best thing you can do is have an experienced attorney on retainer. It is better to understand your rights before you rent out your property than after it is rented, when your rights become limited. Contact the Birmingham eviction lawyers at Cloud Willis & Ellis today to learn more.

Resource:

alisondb.legislature.state.al.us/alison/codeofalabama/1975/35-9A-461.htm

Three Legal Ways to Get Stubborn Tenants Off of Your Property

Whether you are a creditor trying to figure out a way to get former homeowners out of the foreclosed upon property or a landlord wanting to remove bad tenants from your rental unit, you may be wondering how you can get the stubborn tenants off of your property in a way that is compliant with the law. Landlords typically go the eviction route, but what do lenders do when the stubborn residents are not mere tenants, but former borrowers? Fortunately, Alabama provides three ways for landlords and tenants alike to remove a person from their property without much hassle or headache.

Lawsuits for the Removal of Residents

In Alabama, there are three ways in which a person can use the law to regain control of his or her property. Though our Birmingham real estate lawyers at Cloud Willis & Ellis can do a better job of explaining each method in depth in person, this post explains those methods in brief:

Eviction: Eviction is applicable when there is a landlord/tenant lease agreement in place. Unfortunately for the landlord, the tenant has the right to remain on the premises unless the lease is up and the tenant and landlord did not agree to renew it, and/or unless the tenant has violated the terms of the lease. The most common violation is failure to pay rent, but may also include a number of other violations, such as having a pet on the property despite a written agreement forbidding pets. If a landlord opts to evict a tenant instead of ejecting him or her, he or she must give the tenant a chance to remedy the issue for which the landlord wants to evict him or her. A lender cannot evict a prior homeowner for refusing to leave a foreclosed property.
Ejectment: An ejectment applies in situations where the person residing on the property does not have a lease agreement with the owner to be on the property. An ejectment action typically arises when the person living on the premises believes that he or she has the right to be there, such as in foreclosure cases. The homeowner feels that because he or she once owned the property, and/or because he or she invested a significant amount of money in the property, he or she is still entitled to reside in it. Ejectment actions need to be filed in the Circuit Court and typically take much longer to resolve than evictions or unlawful detainers/forcible entry.
Unlawful Detainer/Forcible Entry: This last cause of action arises when the owner of a property wants to remove a person who was invited onto the property and/or granted permission to live on the property for an indefinite period of time but who has overstayed his or her welcome. Unlawful detainer cases typically arise when a child refuses to leave his or her parent’s house after turning 18 and being asked to move out. Alternatively, unlawful detainer cases may arise when a guest is invited to stay on the property by the homeowner but, when asked to leave, refuses to do so. Forcible entry cases, on the other hand, arise when a person resides on another’s property despite lack of an invitation. These usually occur when a squatter has taken up residence on a foreclosed property.

Discuss Your Options With a Real Estate Lawyer

At Cloud Willis & Ellis, we help property owners exercise their rights on a daily basis. If someone is living on your property without your consent, or if you wish to remove somebody from your property in a legal manner, contact our real estate attorneys today.

If I Fight an Eviction in Alabama, Can I Win?

Most states or municipalities have pretty strong rules protecting tenant rights. For instance, in San Francisco, the rental deposit is never really the landlord’s—it’s the tenants even when the landlord has possession of it. When the tenant gets that deposit back, they are also entitled to any interest that accrued on it. Most tenants, of course, do not know this, but it is in the city code nonetheless. In Vermont, tenants who do not pay their rent or seriously violate the lease have 14 days to remedy their actions or pay their rent before the eviction process can start. In Massachusetts, a landlord can be fined up to $300 for trying to speed up the eviction process. While Alabama is not overly tenant-friendly, it does offer a few stipulations that protect tenants from a wrongful eviction.

If you feel that you were wrongly evicted in Birmingham or Mobile, you are not without options. Even if have heard horror stories about people who have been forced out of their apartments or rental properties, know that those people were probably not aware of their tenant rights. So that this does not happen to you, know that there are a few reasons a judge may deny an eviction in Alabama, which can be found under ALA Code § 35-9A-101.

Self-Help Eviction

If your landlord uses self-help measures to evict you—meaning, they change the locks, cut off the running water, interrupt electricity, or interrupt any other essential utilities that a tenant may need to live comfortably—the judge may deny the landlord’s request to evict a tenant. The judge may also deny the landlord’s request if the landlord tried to evict you without providing any prior notice or complaint to the tenant, as doing so does not give the tenant a chance to remedy the problem.

Retaliation

If you reported your landlord for a health code violation, placed their rent in escrow because they failed to make a repair, or exercised your rights in any way, and if afterward your landlord filed an eviction notice, their actions could be construed as retaliation. According to ALA Code § 35-9A-501, trying to evict a tenant for simply exercising their legal rights is in and of itself illegal, and the judge will likely deny their request.

Eviction Based on Erroneous Rules

A landlord is free to add rules to his or her lease as he pleases, but he can only enforce them if the tenant knows about and agrees to them—in writing. A landlord cannot evict a tenant for having a dog if there is no clause in the lease agreement that states that a tenant cannot have a dog. This is the case even if he tells the tenant that dogs are not allowed but does not get the tenant’s consent to the rule in writing. Each rule that a landlord tries to enforce must be explicitly stated in the lease agreement.

Learn More About Your Tenant Rights From a Birmingham Eviction Attorney

Whether you have already received a wrongful eviction notice, believe that your landlord wants to evict you, or just want to know your rights, one of our Birmingham eviction lawyers would be more than happy to fill you in on your rights. If you are a landlord and want to know what constitutes a legal conviction and what makes a wrongful one, or if you want us to draft a lease that complies with Alabama law, we will be just as happy to help. Contact the law offices of Cloud Willis & Ellis, LLC today for a free consultation.

Adverse Possession: The Importance of Evicting Squatters in Alabama

The Sheriff’s Office recently evicted a group of squatters from a home in Southwest Huntsville, reports ABC WAAY 31. Squatters, or people who unlawfully occupy land, are fairly common in Alabama, especially in neighborhoods where foreclosures have left many homes vacant. Landlords in Alabama have the right to evict squatters unless a squatter has acquired the property via “adverse possession”.

Adverse Possession

When you think of a squatter you may picture a homeless person who sneaks into an abandoned house at night in order to have a place to sleep. While some squatters do sneak in and out of the house that they are occupying, others openly move into the home and pretend that they are legally living there. These squatters often put utilities in their own name, have mail delivered, and prepare false documents indicating that they are rightfully in possession of the home. As a landlord in Alabama it is important to know that squatters who openly occupy your property may actually be able to acquire ownership of your land if they adversely possess the property for a specified amount of time and meet various other requirements.

Under Alabama Code of Law section 6-5-200, as well as a string of adverse possession court cases, a squatter in Alabama can acquire legal title over the land that they are occupying if they are able to show that all of the following requirements have been met:

Hostile: The squatter’s possession of the property must be hostile, meaning that they must occupy the land without the owner’s permission.
Actual: The squatter must have actual possession of the property.
Exclusive: The property must be in the squatter’s exclusive possession.
Open and Notorious: The squatter must publicly occupy the property and not hide his or her occupancy.
Continuous for the Statutory Period: Generally, the squatter must have been in possession of the property for at least 10 continuous years, pay taxes on the land, and have color of title. However, this requirement can also be satisfied if the squatter did not pay taxes or have color of title but did occupy the land for 20 years or more.

Classic Example of Adverse Possession

The notion of adverse possession is a very old legal concept that stems from the belief that land should be used and that if someone else can make use of land that an owner has left unattended then the new possessor should have legal rights to the land. For example, if Tom owns a 50 acre tract of land with a hunting cabin on it in rural Alabama that he has not visited for decades, Susan can likely acquire the property via adverse possession if she openly moves into the cabin without the owner’s permission, lives there continuously for 20 years, and has exclusive possession of the property.

How Can a Landlord Stop Adverse Possession?

Stopping adverse possession in Alabama is easy, the landowner must simply enforce their rights as a property owner. A landowner can do this by evicting squatters who have taken up residence on their land, or by reclassifying them as tenants (so that their possession is no longer hostile). Therefore, it is very important that landlords inspect their property regularly and consult with a competent eviction attorney if they discover squatters living illegally on their property.

Need Legal Advice?

If you are a landowner in Alabama and are concerned about losing your property rights to squatters, contact the experienced eviction attorneys at Cloud Willis & Ellis, LLC today. Our lawyers would be happy to discuss your legal options with you during a consultation at our offices in either Birmingham (205-322-6060) or Mobile (251-545-4844).

Valid Reasons For Evicting A Tenant in Alabama

When a landlord wants to remove a tenant from their property they must evict the tenant. Evictions are generally time consuming and expensive for both the landlord and the tenant involved. In order to legally evict a tenant the landlord must strictly comply with all applicable eviction laws. This can be more challenging than it sounds as there are often multiple sources of eviction law that govern a particular landlord-tenant relationship. The Legal Information Institute notes that there are six basic sources of eviction law: local law, state law, federal law, the lease governing the tenancy, the common law, and court rules. As the eviction process can be complicated, and strictly complying with evictions laws helps ensure that the landlord is legally protected, it is a good idea to consult with an experienced evictions attorney before initiating the eviction process.

Common Legal Reasons to Evict a Tenant

When evicting a tenant, it is essential that the landlord has a legally valid reason to base the eviction on. While courts have historically upheld several different reasons as valid, Rent Prep put together a helpful list of the top five reasons that landlords use to lawfully evict tenants:

Late Rent: The most common lawful reason for evicting a tenant is that they have failed to pay their rent on time.
Non-Trivial Violations of the Lease: A landlord can legally evict a tenant after discovering that the tenant has violated some non-trivial provision of the lease. For example, if a rental agreement states that the tenant is not allowed to have pets on the premises then the tenant can be legally evicted if they live with their pet cat.
Illegal Use of the Property: If a tenant uses the rental property for an illegal purpose then the landlord is within his or her rights to evict the tenant. For example, this may include using a rental unit to grow marijuana or opening up a business in a rental house that is not zoned for commercial use.
No Longer Renting: Landlords who no longer wish to rent their property are often allowed to legally evict a tenant if the landlord decides to move into the home or wants to have an immediate family member move in.
Rehabilitation, Demolition, or Sale of the Property: A landlord also has the right to evict a tenant if he or she wishes to substantially rehabilitate the rental unit, demolish the home, or sell the property.

Illegal Reasons for Evicting a Tenant in Alabama

In Alabama, it is illegal for a landlord to evict a tenant as a form of retaliation. For example, it is illegal to evict someone for reporting a housing code violation, joining a tenant organization, or suing the landlord for discriminatory renting practices. Be warned that in an Alabama court it is the landlord’s responsibility to prove that the eviction was not initiated as a retaliatory practice. Additionally, it is also illegal for a landlord to evict a tenant based on a term that was “added” to the rental agreement without the tenant agreeing to the term in writing.

Need Legal Advice?

If you are a landlord in Alabama and would like to evict a tenant, contact the experienced eviction attorneys at Cloud Willis & Ellis, LLC today. Our lawyers can help reduce your financial risk by ensuring that Alabama’s eviction laws are followed during every step of the eviction process.

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