Winter Evictions
If’ you’ve never heard the song “Hey Baby, It’s Cold Outside”, you’re missing out, it’s a classic. If you don’t know what the rules are about evicting a tenant in the winter where you live, you could be missing out on some cold hard cash, like several months worth of rent.
The rules are different everywhere and with the temperature hovering around -30 degrees Celcius (-22 Fahrenheit) with the wind chill as I start writing, I thought winter evictions might be a timely topic.
Can You Evict Tenants In The Winter?
I think the most common answer is yes, but it can depend. I know, not very definitive as far as an answer goes. Ask tenants and they will almost all answer no, but if you’re getting landlord advise from your tenants you may have a much bigger problem…
The problem is the rules vary from state to state and province to province and it would be unrealistic to know the specific answer for every city, town, state, province, district or country throughout the world. But that’s where the internet comes into play.
I did some quick research and actually couldn’t find any places that allowed tenants to stay, just because it was winter. I started by specifically looking at provinces and states that were known to be more tenant friendly and cold. I looked at rules in New York state, Minnesota, Ontario, Quebec and Alaska to name a few and all seemed to be pretty specific.
Evictions can take place at any time of the year if tenants are in breach of the lease. Now to be fair, I didn’t check every state, province, city and town, so you’ll want to do some local research of your own just to be well educated about it!
However, just because it isn’t illegal to evict them, there is not guarantee it can be done quickly. There is a ton of leniency built into the laws when it comes to issues like compassion, hard times and basically bad luck. Here it isn’t written anywhere how much time someone has to be out of the property when evicted.
This gives judges and hearing officers the ability to make decisions based on the evidence and this could mean a quick and effective eviction in more grievous situations. While in other cases they can be given 90 days or longer, but with specific conditions in place or it can accelerate the eviction timeline. These would typically be payment conditions, but depending on the scenario they can vary.
Have you evicted a tenant in the winter? If you have leave us a comment and let us know where you’re at! Maybe we can form a mini database of info right here!
To get it started, I’ve not just evicted tenants in the winter, I’ve also done it right before Christmas and no I’m not the grinch, I just play one on TV! Looking forward to your comments.
I am paid up on rent. But the landlord gave me a 30 day notice. And the property is not registered with the city. And it don’t have working smoke alarms. And the porches steps need to be fixed. What can I do ?
Hi Brian,
I guess my first question would be “Why would you want to stay?”
Are there any specific reasons on the 30 day notice, most areas require the reason to be included on any eviction or termination notices.
Maybe he was shut down by the city? I think the important part you need to understand without smoke detectors you’re putting yourself and possibly your family if you have one at jeopardy, and if the steps are dangerous it just gets worse?
This may be an opportunity for you to move on and find a good landlord, but it might not hurt to report this to the city as well so any future tenants aren’t put in danger.
Bill
My mother , sister and her daughter is going to be evicted out of their home during this winter. What can they do?
Hi Stacey,
That’s simply to vague. Are they being evicted for non-payment, breach of the lease, landlord is selling, or a couple dozen other reasons. Next, what are the local rules about this. Depending on where you live there are specific rules and processes for each situation.
You can usually contact local government landlord and tenant support lines that can go into more specific details for you. This site has landlords from around the globe, so I can’t provide specific information, but at least that’s some starting points.
Bill
I evicted someone last December here in Oklahoma. The date was on the 16th, I won the judgement but then had to wait for the TulsaSheriff’s Dept. to get them out which is suppose to be about 2 days after the hearing here. The Sheriff’s Dept. drug their feet until Dec. 28 and I’m 95% certain it was on purpose. I called the Sheriff Dept. a few times and they said they generally don’t like to kick them out until after the holidays. I think the tenant called them and got the extension from the courts. (I knew from the tenants Facebook page he was moving on the 28th) Here the court did what they wanted at my expense and all I could do from a legal standpoint was take it.
To my knowledge there isn’t a law in OK that I know of regarding not being able to evict because it being too cold but as you can see the court has ways of making landlord’s lives difficult.
Hey Mark,
From one side they can understand their compassion, but on the other side, this likely wasn’t the result of something that happened instantaneously. If they were getting evicted on the 16th, they were likely late much earlier and most likely before as well, so it’s rather unfair to you.
Big picture though, and we always have to remember the big picture, is you got your property back!
Bill
I know if the tenant failed to pay rent, landlord can serve a 14 days termination notice or apply to court to eviction. So if I give a 14 days termination notice, tenant doesn’t move out at the end of the 14th day, can I change the lock? Or I still have to apply to court to evict him? Thanks.
It all depends where you live and what the local rules are as to how many days for any type of eviction notice or application to evict a tenant. Some states and provinces require 30 day notices, some three and then typically they aren’t valid until enforced by a sheriff, bailiff or possibly a court order.
That’s why understanding your local rules are so important. Also, I know of no where that you can change locks without going through the appropriate steps as it can usually result in significant fines or other legal troubles for you as a landlord!
Learn the local landlord rules and laws, or make sure you have access to someone who does.
Bill