Ohio Evictions – Set Out Procedure

Once you have your court date and a writ is issued, the tenant will either leave voluntarily or will stay, forcing your to physically set them out. Set Out Procedure is essentially you, the landlord, contacting the Bailiff the day after the 3rd or 7th day of the writ, and asking to schedule a time to set out the tenant. In Hamilton County, you are required to bring people/employees to help move the property out, and boxes and/or garbage bags to put belongings in. They are put in the front yard and it is the tenant’s responsibility to remove them from the property. The Bailiff simply facilitates the procedure. You, as the landlord, WILL DO THE PHYSICAL moving of the property. Keep this in mind when determining how many people you want to help you with the set out. The more people, the faster the process goes.

Simple Steps Property Managers Can Take to Save Money on Attorney’s Fees

These are just a few steps you can take to limit the amount of time you spend communicating to your Attorney on administrative needs, thereby saving you legal fees. There will always be times that you must contact your Attorney, and you should. However, you should save time and money on the issues that do not require the legal expertise of an attorney and contact your Attorney for the true legal advice you need. These tips are primarily focused on the preparation for Eviction and Actions for Money Damages. Most of these are administrative in nature, and are good procedures to put into place amongst your staff to ensure an efficient and cost effective case with your Attorney.

1. Keep every record relating to the tenant and the property. Keep it one file, the tenant file. This will save you time so you don’t have to scramble to find something when you are ready to evict and sue a tenant for rent or damages.
2. Take photos. Take them before and after the tenant moves. These photos will go a long way toward proving that the damages to the unit are more than just normal wear and tear (which is the standard used to determine if the damages are to be reimbursed to the landlord from the tenant.
3. Keep invoices. Every repair you make, or someone else makes, keep invoices for. Know the method of determining the cost of labor and parts. These are all items you will have to prove in a case against a tenant for damages to the unit. The Judge WILL ask about these items.
4. Keep track of everything having to do with the tenant. Any correspondences, notices to vacate, spreadsheets showing payments and debits, invoices, work orders, etc. You never know in a case what information might become relevant. It all depends upon the “defenses” the tenant decides to assert at trial. If you have all this information in writing, it will improve the quality of the evidence of your case.
5. Keep a log of when rent is due and when rent is received. If you get into the habit of accepting late rent payments, the law states that you must write a letter giving 30 days for the tenant to start paying on time, stating that late payments will no longer be accepted before you can evict someone for non-payment of rent. Records of the payments as well as the thirty day notice letter will help you prove your case in Court in the event the tenant brings up the point that you have always accepted late payments.

As you can see, with a few good policies and procedures in place, you can save a lot of time, improve the quality of your legal case, and hopefully save you a little money along the way.

Ohio Residential Evictions

Many people become Landlords by accident. Perhaps you purchased a home to flip, only to find yourself stuck with the property because of market conditions. Whatever the reason, the Landlord/Tenant Law is vast, and its effects can be devastating to you financially if you are not compliant.

You have essentially two sets of rules regarding tenants: The law as set forth in Ohio Revised Code sections 1923 and 5321. I will focus on section 1923: Forcible Entry and Detainer. This section sets forth the law of evictions.

Evictions can be messy, time-consuming and expensive. Eviction is a last resort, and you want to try to choose your tenants in the best way possible to minimize the necessity of evictions. That being said, some times an eviction is necessary to protect yourself.

There are different grounds you can evict a tenant for. Non-compliance with the lease provisions, violations of the tenant’s duties under the law, and failure to pay rent are the most often used grounds for eviction.

The first step is to determine what grounds you are going to evict upon. Failure to pay rent is the quickest method. If your tenant is in violation of their lease or the law, and also behind on rent, generally the best choice is to evict for non-payment of rent. Non-payment of rent for a non-section 8 tenant requires three-day notice to vacate the premises. Some Counties have specific form notices they want you to use. If your county does not, I recommend using the notice provided by Hamilton County (Cincinnati) as it complies with State Law.

Once you post your notice to vacate, keep in mind that if you accept a payment from the tenant after posting, you will not be able to evict under your original notice. If you accept a payment, you must issue a new three-day notice to vacate for the remaining past due rent.

If, at the expiration of the three days, the tenant is still residing in the unit, you should then file an action for Forcible Entry and Detainer (the fancy way of saying Eviction.) Depending upon your local Court, it could be anywhere from a week to a month or more before your hearing date.

Eviction for non-payment of rent is pretty straight forward. You will go to Court and state that you complied with the three-day notice, that the tenant is behind in rent, and that you still want them evicted. There are very few defenses to non-payment of rent, and this is a reason this method is so desirable. For instance, if you, the Landlord, failed to make necessary repairs after being informed by the tenant, the tenant would need to use the rent deposit/escrow procedure with your local Court. This is where a tenant pays their rent directly to the Court, and the landlord cannot collect that rent until the repairs are made. A tenant cannot simply stop paying. It must be through this Court approved procedure. Therefore, there are very few instances when a tenant can avoid eviction for non-payment of rent.

Once you give your testimony, the Court, if they approve your eviction, will grant a 0, 3, or 7 day Writ of Restitution. The Writ of Restitution gives the property back to you, the Landlord, upon expiration of 0, 3, or 7 days. The 7 day writ is the most common. If upon the expiration of 7 days, the tenant is still residing in the unit, you will schedule a “set out” with the Bailiff. A set out is exactly what it sounds like: you and your employees will physically remove the evicted tenants possessions out of the unit and you can then change the locks.

This procedure must be followed to the letter, as any violation or deviation could force you to start the entire process over. This is why it is so important to have an Attorney for your evictions. The time and money wasted because of mistakes in the eviction procedure can be enormous.

Eviction of a Section 8 (HUD tenant) is essentially the same, but Section 8 tenants get more notice than non Section 8 tenants do.

The procedure is the same for violations of the lease agreement. However, to terminate a lease for some other reason, generally 30 day notice is required.

What are a Tenant’s Duties to the Landlord?

In Ohio, a tenant has duties owed to the landlord. They are statutory, common law, and duties imposed via the lease contract.

A Tenant’s Statutory Duties are:

1. Duty to maintain the premises in safe and sanitary condition,

2. Duty to dispose of garbage in a safe and sanitary manner,

3. Duty to keep plumbing fixtures clean,

4. Duty to use and operate all electric and plumbing fixtures properly,

5. Duty to comply with applicable housing, health, and safety codes,

6. Duty to refrain from destroying, defacing, damaging, or removing any fixture, appliance, or other part of the premises,

7. Duty to maintain appliances supplied by the landlord,

8. Duty to preserve other tenants’ peaceful enjoyment of the premises,

9. Duty not to violate state law provisions involving drug offenses and controlled substances, and

10. Duty to allow Landlord reasonable access to the premises.

Tenant’s Common Law Duties

1. Duty to pay rent,

2. Duty to make repairs,

3. Duty to surrender possession of the leased premises, and

4. Duty not to commit waste.

The Landlord’s remedies when one of these duties is breached include:

1. Recover actual damages resulting from the violation,

2. Recover reasonable attorney fees (note: I have never seen attorney fees awarded to a landlord, so although it is listed as a remedy, in practice, it is not an option,)

3. Elect to terminate the lease/rental agreement (proper notice MUST be provided to the tenant,)

4. Maintain an action for Forcible Entry and Detainer (Eviction,) or

5. Maintain an action for injunctive relief to compel access to the premises.

If you believe a tenant has violated one of these duties, you should consult an Attorney to determine the best course of action.

What is Forcible Entry and Detainer?

Black’s Law Dictionary defines “Forcible Entry and Detainer” as: “2. A legal proceeding for regaining possession of real property from someone who has wrongfully taken, or refused to surrender, possession.”

In Ohio, a Forcible Entry and Detainer action is the formal name for an eviction.

The rules for eviction are different for Residential Tenants, Commercial Tenants, Condominium Tenants, Manufactured Home Tenants, and Section 8 tenants.