How much does eviction law vary across cities/counties/states?

[Kyle Soudalan]

I see this question pop up a lot on BP: "how do I evict a tenant in [city, state]?" I've had to evict a few tenants from properties I've owned in different states, but I always rely on property managers to contact the law firms and work with an attorney to handle the eviction. 

Of course, this is usually unnecessarily expensive. The attorney charge hundreds of dollars, if not well over a thousand dollars, to essentially follow a step-by-step guide for how to do an eviction. Send a notice, fill out specific paperwork, don't collect rent in the meantime, don't shut off utilities to retaliated against the tenant, etc.

I want to better understand:

1. How hard is it for a landlord to read and learn how to perform an eviction in their specific city/county/state?
2. How much does eviction law vary by city/county/state?
3. I assume most landlords' biggest fear when evicting a tenant is either losing the ruling (because they didn't follow the process correctly) or being sued themselves (because of adverse actions they took while trying to evict the tenant). But is it that hard to learn it yourself?

Is there anyone here who feels comfortable evicting tenants themselves without ever going through an attorney?

[Jim K.]

@Kyle Soudalan

It's about $150 here in Pittsburgh, $300 if you go all the way to physically getting rid of the tenant, but then you also get the help of the local elected constable to legally handle the ejectment, which is not at all an inconsiderable matter.

In answer to your questions:

1. It's not hard at all here in Pittsburgh to learn the local eviction law and procedure. There's a ton of information out on the internet, mostly written to help tenants in trouble, but that doesn't mean it's not useful information for a landlord. That's how I learned most of what I know about local eviction law.

2. Eviction law doesn't really vary that much, but eviction PROCEDURES do, and you, as the landlord, will be expected to very, very carefully follow them. The judges here expect much more out of landlords when it comes to this than they do out of tenants. This is where the help of an experienced lawyer (and really, there are not many of them here) comes in handy.

3. I have neither of the fears you're bringing up. It's hard to lose an open-and-shut case with clear documentation, and I have never brought anything else to a magistrate. I've never been successfully sued by a tenant over an eviction and I don't worry that it will ever happen to me, unless I keep at this until I get dementia. Again, once I file the initial complaint, I make damned sure I follow the law to its very last letter.

I handle eviction cases by myself. If it's not clear enough to handle by myself, I don't take the tenant to court, pure and simple. I also think it's important to go to every single eviction case myself. I own multiple units in the same jurisdictions and the same local judges see my face again and again. Over time, they've come to expect what I always bring them, an open-and-shut case. I think that's an important part of doing business locally.

In your case, Kyle, you're operating at a significant disadvantage in this part of REI by not operating locally. Something the gurus don't ever seem to talk about in the long-distance passive-investment seminars.

To further address what @Nathan Gesner mentioned here: there really are some places where eviction procedures (not so much the law) changes all the time and is murky on purpose to give judges extreme leeway. You should not own long-distance rental property in places like that. They're usually dominated in terms of population by tenants and have both really, really high rents and property prices.