Evicting My First Tenant

[Jamaal Smith]

Hello everyone,

I have a 4 plex in which I live in one unit and I have 3 tenants in the other units. My mortgage loan is a VA loan. I have a tenant who is behind in rent by a month and half.

I want to evict this tenant. The property is located in the Dallas, Texas area. What process should I go through to make the process as smooth as possible? Am I allowed to accept partial/full payments once eviction proceedings have started?

[Jim K.]

Hi, @Jamaal Smith

I've been in your shoes. As I'm sure you understand already, the ra-ra gurus of real estate try to say as little about eviction as possible. It's one of the absolute worst parts of rental property investing of any variety.

Your first step is going to be to research Texas law, and then narrow it down to the particular county and municipality this property is in. There's a great book called Every Landlord's Legal Guide published by NOLO that will give you some great basic advice on how the process works, you may want to buy that. But while evictions have many similarities throughout the country, scrupulously following local law and procedure is the key to getting through the process with as little pain as possible.

You will probably want to also find and consult a local real estate attorney who does evictions on the process, especially this first time, especially if you suspect you're going to be doing this multiple times in the future.

I can't answer your first specific question better than that. Find descriptions of the process, and study the process. I'm even hesitant to give you the web address I'm about to give you, because if you haven't looked for it and found it already before coming to the Bigger Pockets forums to ask strangers for help, you're way, way behind the eight ball. But here's where to start your research in Dallas County: General Procedures for Filing an Eviction for Non-Payment of Rent


I also can't answer your second question successfully from my perspective. For me, operating in Pittsburgh and Allegheny County, where Pittsburgh is located, it's always better not to accept any sort of payments once eviction proceedings have started. It always tends to complicate the case. What you always want, in any eviction before any district magisterial judge here in my area, is a clear open-and-shut case where you are obviously high on the Mountain of Right, while the tenant is deep in the Valley of Wrong.

But I don't operate out of Dallas and I really can't tell you with any real authority what's best there. Good luck, Jamaal.