Fort Worth Property Management on Eviction : When it's Goodbye Time

Dallas and Fort Worth property management agents agree that the eviction process is always a delicate one. They say that no matter how prepared you are, there will almost always be trepidation and unpleasant disputes, including lawsuits. Frequently, Fort Worth and Dallas rental property management professionals will hire a specialist in the field of eviction to help them serve notices correctly. This can preclude future lawsuits based on incorrect service loopholes.

What You May Not Do Legally

In Texas, it is illegal to try to evict someone without using the court system. Actions designed to get a tenant to pay up or leave, such as those outlined in the list below, can come back to haunt the property owner in court:

• Never harass tenants
• Never remove anything that belongs to the tenant.
• Never change locks to shut a tenant out.
• Never, under any circumstances, threaten to use force to get a tenant to leave.
• Never have any kind of utility turned off to force a tenant to vacate.

Steps to a Successful Eviction

Every step of the eviction process is best left to the experts. Ideally, the landlord or apartment manager will hire a professional to do it right, but following is how the proceedings generally go:

• Serve a Notice to Vacate to the tenant who pays the rent. This is required by state law, unless counter-mandated by the lease.
• File for eviction in rent court
• Attend the hearing in rent court
• Obtain a legal Writ of Possession
• Eviction by lockout when granted the right by the courts is now legal.