How to evict a tenant, legally

The order of operations

Eviction is a legal process with a fixed sequence, and doing the steps out of order is the most expensive mistake in residential property. The broad shape is the same nearly everywhere.

• Establish a lawful ground. Not liking the tenant is not one.
• Serve a written notice that meets your jurisdiction’s requirements exactly, including the official form where one exists.
• Deliver it in an approved way, and record how and when.
• Wait the full notice period. Applying early usually restarts the process.
• Apply to the tribunal or court, pay the fee, and attend the hearing with your evidence.
• If you get an order, use the sheriff or bailiff. Never enforce it yourself.

Why applications get thrown out

Adjudicators dismiss a great many applications on paperwork alone, without ever reaching the question of whether the tenant did anything wrong. These are the recurring reasons, and every one of them is avoidable.

• The wrong form, or a jurisdiction’s official form not used at all.
• A notice period miscounted by a day or two.
• Service done a way the rules do not accept, or with no record of it.
• A vague reason. "Breach of lease" without saying which term and what happened.
• The amount claimed does not match the ledger, or includes charges the jurisdiction does not permit — late fees, for instance, are prohibited outright in Ontario and Québec.
• Accepting rent after the notice, which in some places waives it.

What it actually costs

Filing fees are usually modest. The real cost is time: weeks or months of a unit occupied by someone not paying, plus your own hours, plus any legal help. Set against that, almost anything that ends the tenancy sooner is worth considering.

This is why experienced landlords take a cash-for-keys agreement seriously. A negotiated departure with a written agreement and a firm date is frequently cheaper and faster than winning.

Before you serve anything

A short pause here saves months later. Most disputes that reach a hearing were avoidable at this stage.

• Check your ledger is exact. Every payment, date and balance.
• Re-read the lease clause you are relying on.
• Put the problem to the tenant in writing once, plainly, with a deadline. It often resolves it, and if it does not, it becomes evidence.
• Confirm the current notice period and form from your tenancy authority. These change.
• Check the tenancy is even covered — many jurisdictions exclude certain accommodation from the residential rules.

Keep records as though you will need them

Because you will. Hearings are decided on documents far more than on accounts of what was said. A dated ledger, signed lease, photographs, and a clean message history win cases; memory does not.

Common questions