Do tenants on a lease have the right to ask/force a tenant not on the lease to leave?

by **broehain61** » Sat Feb 25, 2012 9:01 pm

I'm not sure what the laws are on residency in New Mexico. San Juan county, to be more exact. We had someone, not on the lease, stay at our apartment for roughly 5 to 6 months. Then things went sour and we asked him to leave. There was a set day that he agreed to leave, but on that day he was refusing to leave so we forced him out. Something happened and the police was involved and the police said that even if his name was not on the lease, he had been living there so he has the right to live there and needs to be notified of his eviction prior. It was already agreed amongst us that he would leave that day. The landlord knows nothing about this, had nothing to do with this. Were we in the right? Or were we in the wrong? Did we have to notify the landlord ourselves or did we have the right to ask the non-lease tenant to leave?

by **aviya** » Sat Feb 25, 2012 9:07 pm

You were in the wrong. You are lucky you were not arrested. No one at all has the right to kick someone out of their own home without a court order.

Since you are this guys landlord you are the one that needs to go to court and obtain a writ of possession in order to remove him.

by **baigh** » Sat Feb 25, 2012 9:10 pm

You have the right to ASK, yes.

You do NOT have the right to force him out. You invited this person to live there, thu they were a legal resident of the apartment whether they were on the lease or not. Hence, a leagl eviction process needed to happen.

by **gilleabart** » Sat Feb 25, 2012 9:15 pm

Since he is not on the lease or a lease with you, this would indicate that he is on a month to month tenancy.

With him being in this status, yo-u may evict him by giving him a 30 day notice to move in most states. This must be in writing as this is the beginning of the legal eviction process. You do not have to have a reason for evicting this person that is living there on a month to month tenancy.

If he fail to move within the 30 day notice you gave him, you must then go to court and apply for a legal eviction signed by a judge. There is a fee for filing this eviction notice through the court. Once the eviction notice has been signed by the judge it must be served on the tenant. You may serve this eviction notice, however, it would be better if the local law enforcement agency that would do this chore, there is a fee for the service of using the law enforcement agency.

If he fail to leave with in the time frame outlined in the legal eviction notice, you would have use the services of the local law enforcement agency to physically remove him from the rental unit.

You might want to check with your state laws concerning evictions as the time frames are similar there might be a quirk or two difference.

I hope this has been of some benefit to you, good luck.

"FIGHT ON"

by **tupac** » Sat Feb 25, 2012 9:17 pm

You were wrong. It didn't matter that his name was not on the lease. He was your legal tenant so you needed to go to court and get an eviction order to force him to leave. The landlord could also have gone to court for an eviction order but they didn't need to get involved.

The court might not have ordered him out. The fact you didn't get along with him is not the courts concern. He needed to do something that legally violated the terms of his lease or agreement with you. The bad news is he might have cause to sue you for a wrongful eviction.

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