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EVICTION 101 St Clair Shores Edition

By
Real Estate Agent with LAR Notary and Closing Services

EVICTION 101

What is the most important thing I tell first time investors when they come to me looking for a rental property?

Learn how to get your tenants out of the property! If you are involved in rental property long enough you are going to have to evict someone.

I want to preface this post with a disclaimer……I AM NOT AN ATTORNEY AND I CAN NOT PROVIDE LEGAL ADVICE. This is just my personal experience. I live in St Clair Shores Michigan and the law here is almost certainly different than yours in some way.

The process here begins with:

The Seven Day Notice to Quit. This is a request for the rent within seven days. If not paid the tenant is ordered to vacate. This can be mailed or personally delivered, I mail it. I do get delivery confirmation from the post office just in case and I will print it from the USPS site after delivery.

If they haven’t paid and are still there after 7 days the next step is:

File the Complaint and get a court date:

Go to the court, get the forms, fill them out, pay your  fee and you will get a court date. (make sure you ask about copies, our area requires two for each occupant and two more for the court) St Clair Shores handles the service of the documents so we don’t have to worry about it. In some areas you may have to hire your own process servers. The court dates here are usually two weeks or so down the road. Next:

Show up for court:
I suggest you prepare your judgement ahead of time (The clerks may tell you they will do it, but do it yourself) They will give you the forms. Most of the time the tenants wont show up, but even if they do the judge doesn’t have any leeway. If they haven’t paid they are out….no excuses or extenuating circumstances allowed. Once the judgement is signed the judge will issue an eviction order. This gives them ten days to vacate, after which you can have the sheriff show up and put them out physically. Keep in mind you will have to schedule the sheriff being there and pay a fee and they may not be available the exact day the order ends

The total cost for this in St Clair Shores is around two hundred dollars but that varies widely I’m sure.

This is a basic outline of the process, it could be completely different where you live, even in other Michigan cities, always check with your court clerk.

Right now is a great time to be purchasing rental properties. Just make sure you are up for the work that goes with it.

Comments (3)

Denise OnullDell
Santa Clarita Mobile Notary - Santa Clarita, CA
Mobile Notary Public/Real Estate Agent

Hi Terry - I have a couple rentals in Southern California, one of which the tenants are voluntarily leaving at the present time after being there for 7 years. :-( There is an overage of rentals in a lot of areas because of all the foreclosures.  People can get a bigger place and pay cheaper rent with no questions asked.  Now I am in the position of having to find renters in 30 days, which is not going to be an easy task. 

In the 10 years I have been involved in the rental busines, I have fortunately only had to evict one tenant.  This was a different rental than the one mentioned above.  After being served with the 3-day notice, etc., they finally left after a short time, and left behind what little furniture they had.  I was just relieved I never had to go to court and thankful they left as quickly as they did.  It could've been a lot worse.  This was a couple years ago and at that time able to find new renters right away. 

Great post...Thanks!

 

Jun 22, 2008 11:42 AM
Jared Pomranky ~ Detroit Foreclosures
Urban Detroit Wholesalers - Detroit, MI

Terry, this is great advice and layout of steps for the do-it-yourselfer.  If you have to go through the process yourself more than once, you'll likely not want to do it again.  My best advice for the do-it-yourself manager is to hire an attorney for your evictions.  They'll make sure everything is done right and most likely get it done quicker.  Even better than that is a great property manager to handle it for you.

Jared

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Jun 24, 2008 09:19 AM
Anonymous
Emily C JEWEL

What would you advise for an at will month to month tenant where there is no rent? Can I send a 7 day notice to quit in that instance?

Aug 18, 2020 12:15 PM
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