How to Evict a Tenant

If you’re certain that eviction is your best option, it is important to make sure you have a legally valid reason to evict a tenant and that the tenant does not have a strong defence. Here are some of the most common reasons courts will allow a landlord to evict a tenant.

• Failure to pay rent
• Other violation of the lease
• Significant damage to the property
• Tenant does not leave after the lease ends
• The “tenant” is squatting or otherwise not legally allowed to occupy the rental unit
• You want to sell or renovate your property and these situations are covered in your lease

The nature of the tenancy (12 months, month-to-month, etc.) as well as the facts surrounding the reason for eviction and the laws in your province dictate the specific type of eviction notice you must provide and the steps you must take to be successful.

Do you need to send a Notice to Pay or Quit, a Notice to Cure or Quit or an Unconditional Quit Notice? How much time do you have to give the tenant until you can file for eviction? To be legally enforceable, can you serve the notice by mail or do you have to serve it in person with a witness present? Can you tape the notice to the front door? The answers to these questions depend on provincial law and the lease.

You need to make sure the notice is proper and properly given. For failure to pay rent or violation of the lease, the tenant should be given notice with the time allowed by law to cure the problem. Both the lease and the law dictate the rules for providing proper notice before a landlord can seek to take additional steps.

Notice to Pay or Quit

This type of notice is used when a tenant is late with the rent. Your notice will essentially say the tenant must pay up within a specific time frame or move out.

Notice to Cure or Quit

If your tenant has breached some other term of your lease, such as allowing an unauthorized pet or roommate to live in your rental unit, to fix the problem or move out.

Unconditional Quit Notice

If you have an extreme situation, like a tenant dealing drugs out of your unit, some provinces allow you to ask the tenant to leave without providing any option to stay.

If you’d rather not stress and guess, work with a Provider Lawyer from LegalShield and get the advice and documents you need for a small monthly fee. 

If you’ve properly served notice and your tenant has not paid, cured the lease violation or moved out, it may be time to file a petition for eviction. Like all other parts of the eviction process, there are province-specific rules and regulations you need to follow. Here is a summary.

• Generally, you’ll need to draft a summons and complaint and file it with the district court in the county where the unit is located.
• If a tenant owes you a significant amount of rent and you seek monetary damages, you may need to file your case in a superior court.
• You’ll need to include proof that notice was properly served and other supporting documents, correspondence, etc.
• The court will either serve the tenant with a summons to appear at a hearing or issue the document for you to serve.

By this point you may be thinking ‘I should call a lawyer to help me with this process.’ While it’s certainly possible for you to do this on your own, having the ability to call a lawyer with questions, get guidance along the way and have them review documents before they are sent or filed can dramatically increase your chances of success and make a difficult situation much less intimidating.

Congratulations! You attended the eviction hearing, argued your case and you won. However, even if you prevail in the eviction lawsuit, you still can’t just move the tenant and their belongings out. Be prepared you will need a writ from the court to provide to local law enforcement, normally a sheriff, who can provide notice to the tenant to move out within a certain period of time. If the tenant still does not move out, law enforcement can come back and enforce the writ.

As we’ve mentioned several times, as long as you follow the letter of the law in your province, you can be successful evicting a problem tenant. If and when you need legal support, joining LegalShield is an incredibly affordable and effective option.