I live in North Carolina. A friend of mine is renting 2 rooms in his house on a month-to-month basis to a woman and her son. He is active duty Coast Guard and spends almost every other 7 weeks at sea. He's currently deployed again until June 21. On May 3 when he left port, he left his roommate a letter stating he wished her to vacate by the time he returned, giving her 7 weeks. They have a written agreement as to what she is supposed to pay and by when. She emailed him a nasty response that day, and told him she'd be out by June 1 (effectively giving her 30 days-notice), and she wasn't going to give him any more money. She's still there, and now he's worried she won't move out before he returns. At this point, because she is still there even though she said she'd be out, can he change the locks and/or have her arrested for tresspassing? Or does he need to file eviction papers? She hasn't given him any more money, is ignoring his emails & phone calls, and is actually allowing someone else to live there while she's "moving out". It's not a rental property, he lives there, too. The other question is, can I help him do anything while he's out of the country? He's given me a key to his house so I can look in on it & he's asked me to help him. He's only reachable by email unless he's on port call on US territory. Any advice is very much appreciated!

He may be able to give you a special power of attorney, asking you to look after this real estate, and empowering you to evict the tenant. I believe the process of eviction will be necessary; contact your magistrate or small claims court and inquire about procedure and costs.