Hello , I'm new to this site and to being a landlord as well, So please help me.. I have a tenant who has a year to year lease but I'd like them out.. What can I do. They play the music loud , pay the rent late every month and as of 9/28/08 I had to call the police because they were intoxicated and assaulted myself and my wife... Please help

I have no expertise in this area but am surprised that this question has not yet been addressed.

Where I live, eviction is expensive, about $500. It may be well worth the money though. Read the lease and determine where it has been broken. Record evidence. Investigate the laws that affect you, as a landlord.

Hopefully someone will come along and have more information for you.

If you fear a physical assault from them again, I would suggest you retain an attorney and have these tenants evicted. You don't need a tenant that is a meanace to you (or other tenants) and who is also a late payer. The attorney can be your "mouth piece" in this situation and you're totally out of the picture as far as any negotiations directly with this tenant are concerned.

You can actually evict them yourself without ever having to come into contact with them.

First, familiarize yourself with your lease (do you have a written lease with them?) and your state's landlord / tenant laws. There's a sticky at the top of the forum with a link to each state's laws.

The easiest thing to evict someone for is non-payment of rent. If you're pretty sure they'll not pay their rent (I'm assuming it's due October 1?) find out exactly when your lease and the law consider it to be late. In many cases, that's on the 2nd. Late fees may not begin accruing that soon, but you're looking for when you can start eviction proceedures. You need to figure out exactly what length of notice you must give them. It's typically somewhere between 3 - 5 days. Then you go from there with filing an eviction suit if they don't pay. In some states you must accept the rent if they attempt to pay it, and in some places once they're late it's your choice whether to accept it.

You can also evict them for other lease violations - it's just sometimes not quite as much of a "slam dunk" as the non-payment of rent.

ALSO, if they have literally, physically assaulted you - you should (have already) call the police, file charges against them, and file for a restraining order. Then, with that, you should be able to file for some type of emergency eviction.

For future reference, you need to educate yourselves really well on landlording. There are lots of landlord associations, apartment associations and groups like that where you can get all kinds of great information. You need a really strong lease, and you need to very carefully screen applicants. There are tons of resources available, you just have to search around a bit in your area and see what's available to you.

We do have someone with experience as a NYS landlord who should be along soon and correct me if I'm wrong.

The first thing is you need to document everything. Especially, the chronic lateness. If you issue a pay or vacate order, you generally have to accept full payment if made prior to the deadline. If they miss the pay or vacate deadline, then you can file for eviction and refuse to accept any payment using the chronic lateness as grounds.

When you file for the eviction order, cite all the problems, chronic lateness, noise issue, personal threats etc.

Once the order is granted, you will hire a sheriff to serve the order and move them out.

As mommy states you need to familiarize yourself with what your leases state, the laws governing tenants and how to screen tenants before you rent again.

First what type of apartment, why and how were they in contract with you and your wife to assult them, Did you press charges against them for this.

If they are paying late, are you enforcing the late payment fee as allowed in your lease ?

What does the lease say about late pay, does it allow eviction ?