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Tenant Eviction Process in Memphis, Tennessee – What to Do When a Tenant Stops Paying Rent
The process you follow to evict tenants from your Memphis home depends on your lease. There are two different routes to take, depending on whether you have a lease with a waiver of notice or not.
Evicting with a Notice of Waiver
In all of the leases for the Memphis rental properties we manage, there is a section called Waiver of Notice. This means that once a tenant does not pay rent, we aren’t obligated to give them notice; we can immediately start the eviction process. So our rent is due on the first of the month, and tenants have until the fifth to pay. If they don’t pay by the fifth, we immediately start the eviction process.
Serving Eviction Notice to the Tenant
With a normal eviction, we send the eviction paperwork to our attorney on the seventh of the month. The attorney then files the paperwork with court, and we turn it over to a private process service. Within three days of starting the eviction, the process server will go and serve the resident. There are two ways to do this. Physical service is the best, and that’s when the process server actually hands the paperwork to the resident. If they cannot find the resident, they post the notice on their door. The process server we use tries three times before posting on the door. After that, it takes six or seven days for the eviction to go to court. At court, when the judge rules in your favor, there’s a wait of about 10 days before we can get a Writ of Possession. After that, we have about two or three days before we can put their stuff out on the street and take possession of the property back.
Evicting Without a Waiver of Notice
If this process moves quickly, you have your resident out in 30 to 45 days. If you don’t have a waiver of notice, you can expect to wait another 30 to 45 days. That’s because you have to provide extra notice that they are past due on rent. So you
have to post something on their door stating they have not paid rent, and then you need to give them the opportunity to catch up before you start the eviction.
If you have any questions about evicting Memphis tenants or anything pertaining to Memphis property management, please contact us at Lubin Property Management.