Need Urgent Info on the Eviction Process!!

www.rentlaw.com/eviction/texaseviction.htm read this. Just remember the landlord has the right to enter the home and remove things of value to hold for rent payment, but he can only remove things like TV, microwave that sort he can not take furniture, childrens belongings, jewelry and must leave you notice and serial numbers of everything removed. He also has the right to do a lock out but this is to force you to contact him and make arrangements then he must give you access and a key again. He also must leave notice of a number he can be reached at 24/7 to regain access. If he locks you out and does not give you a way to contact him you may break into yor own property. You must repair any damages you make breaking in but it is legal if he does not have a court order to vacate. I have seen some judges who look and circumstances and determine they could have paid just did not and give them 24 hours even with kids and other judges who say there are kids involved and give 30 days. But if she does not show to court it will be 24 hours. Now if the landlord enters and removes things without a legal eviction and does not leave notice that he did so for rent it is theft call the police.

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just read. No she doesn't have to be out. She has 6 months to evict. He's pulling a scare tactic.

The landlord must follow the legal process for eviction. The landlord must file an eviction with the court and a court date will be set. The tenant will be served with court papers letting her know the date and time. She can either go or not, but the judge will side for the landlord and give her 5 days to get out. If she is not out the landlord must file a writ with the court and another date for her to be out will be set. If she is not out the landlord will have a couple constables show up and all her stuff will be removed from the house and placed on the street. This is all assuming your friend lives in Texas. If she doesn't live in Texas the landlord will have to follow the laws of the state.

Ive been here because i had to do this to someone living in my trailer and they wouldnt pay...i was told that i could give them a 24hr notice if they werent out by 24hrs ( thats by sending them the letter ... they had 24hrs after recieving the letter ) then i could serve them in public like at work at the store or somewhere's but had to make sure someone witnesses this ... and i could give them another 24hrs if they werent out by then then thats when i had to file with the courts

F.,
I didn't read all the responses but Lauren is right... I just wanted to add, if a landlord does change the locks, as long as she ask for a new key, he has to give it to her. I'll keep your friend in my prayers.
God Bless!

It sounds like she got her 3 day notice. This does NOT mean she has to be out by the end of the 3 days (there is usually a date on there but tell her to just ignore it). Once the court date has been issued, usually about a week after the notice has arrived, a constable will deliver a notice to her door of when the actual court date will be. If she goes to court, that can buy her some more time if she has not found a place yet. She'll have to explain to the judge her reason for non payment and request an extened stay which they usually will grant BUT she has to show up to get it. IF she does not go to court, a constable will then deliver ANOTHER notice of her "actual" move out date. This notice will be different looking than the first one and it states very clearly when she has to be out. The ENTIRE process of how long everything takes (if she does not go to court) will take about 1 mnth from the day she received her first notice. Tell her not to worry, it's a scary time but she does still have time. Hope she gets everything together soon, it's tough out there these days!!
Take care.

Generally, the three day eviction notice is a notice of fileing a eviction suite with a court for eviction. ONLY a court/judge can do a eviction by court order. No landlord can evict you...you will receive notice of the date set for a hearing and your friend can indeed go before the judge and state her reasons and such for her falling behind and the kids and such...and the judge will set a date to be OUT, not the landlord...he may even allow your requested time if needed to get out if your situation requires it. She should go to this hearing if she needs a little time before she has to be out...

The landlord has to give three days written notice before filing an eviction suit. Her letter in the mail was probably the three days notice, and then he gave a second, 24 hour notice. If the tenant leaves within that time, no suit is filed. If the tenant doesn't leave, the landlord files an eviction suit, the court sets a date (usually about six days later)and delivers notice to the tenant. Even if she shows, the landlord wins because she didn't pay, but she gets another few days to be out. If she STILL doesn't leave, the landlord files a writ of possession and the police accompany the landlord to take possession of the property and remove all the belongings from the premises. The landlord canot change the locks until a writ of possession has been issued. A judge can and will evict a mother and her children. The landlord will win because she did not pay her rent. The whole thing takes about three weeks, from first notice to forced eviction, so she probably has 2 1/2 weeks at the most.

Once a court date is set, she will need to show up at court. The judge will rule in landlord's favor since she violated the lease with nonpayment. The judge usually gives between 3 days and 1 week from the date of court to vacate. If she is not out by then, the constable will red tag the house and she will likely have 2 more days. But if she isn't out by then, the landlord can move the stuff out to the curb in bags and it will not be secure.

I'm confused.

How can she have the money for a house if she doesn't have the money to pay the rent? You need extra money in order to be able to move - downpayments, turning on utilities, etc if buying, and first and last months rent if renting, etc.

I feel for her greatly, but a move does not make sense here! She can't escape her money situation or change it by moving. Houses usually end up costing more than apartments, don't they? I mean you have to mow and water the lawn and a zillion other things.

I hope things work out for her and her kids.

http://www.peopleslawyer.net/tenant.html is a helpful website for your friend. The landlord cannot just send a letter telling her to vacate by tomorrow. There is an entire process (we had to evict someone from our rent house a few months ago) and it takes about 2-3 weeks to get through it. That should buy her some time.

I guess it all depends on why she's being terminated, but here's a couple of good links for Texas Tenants rights:

http://www.texastenant.org/

http://www.txtenants.org/

I would GOOGLE the eviction laws/renter rights of your county/state to see.

I think any where you have to have at least 30 days but basically texas is an imenant domain state where who ever is living there is there and they can not physcially make you leave unless you have a court order or have gone through the eviction process legally. Texas is more pro renter than landlord.
Tell her not to leave to make the landlord go through the process the legal way.
but Im not sure how that works...

Good luck
A. J

I'm pretty certain she has thirty days to get out. He can take her to court but that will take time and no sensible judge is going to throw out a mother with children out on the streets!!!!!!

http://www.txtenants.org/tx_property_code.html

There is a downloadable document on this page of the links Judy posted. There is a section addressing eviction but it's pretty complicated. At first I thought she had three days after she recieved written notice, but reading on there are instances, (it isn't real clear to me exactly WHAT instances), where she might indeed have to be out tomorrow.
Best of luck figuring this out.