@Jeremy Mattson Well that makes it as easy as possible for you psychologically; you shouldn't feel bad about evicting someone who has already exceeded the limits of charity from their church and even their mother. My case was the same in that way: she even had a grant program for single women willing to pay her rent, she just never filled out the paperwork. I attempted an amicable split, offered to waive the late rent plus late fees and even offered her a week more free rent to get out if she went peacefully and didn't damage the property on her way out. I reminded her that if I had to evict, having that on her record plus garnished wages and ruined credit would make it impossible for her to get another apartment. But she didn't take my offer. Maybe she thought, "I'm a single mother, they won't just kick me and my kid's butts out in the street." I included all late fees, court fees, lease violation fees, and damages in the Notice to Pay or Quit. Surprisingly she actually showed up in court. I stuck to the facts and kept it extremely simple: she was chronically late on rent, hadn't paid her utility bills, and I wanted her out so I could replace her with a more responsible tenant (I didn't even get into the lease violations, as I didn't want to). When it was time for her side of the story, she launched into a litany of excuses. The judge literally cut her off mid sentence, Judge Judy style, and simply asked, "Can you be out tomorrow on your own, or do I have to get the sheriff to forcibly move you out?", and that was that.
Maybe this is the rock bottom moment your tenant needs to get her act together. Anyway, not your problem. The eviction will be over before you know it, you'll learn how to do it, and you'll feel so much better after it's done with the unit rehabbed and a quality tenant in place. Sounds like you're bootstrapping so you probably don't want to pay a lawyer. Just look up the process on your court jurisdiction's website. It's not that hard in my experience and all the forms are right there. With unpaid utilities, lease violations, and chronic late rent that you've served notices on and documented, it's a pretty cut and dry case. Just follow the process exactly as your jurisdiction requires, don't deviate at all or you may have to start all over.
My main take away from my first eviction was realizing the importance of serving notices to pay or quit and charging late fees immediately every time rent is late beyond the grace period. I'm not rude about it, I usually don't even talk to the tenant but if I do I just say "Company policy. We need you to pay on time so we can pay our own bills including the mortgage for this building on time. Banks don't tolerate late payments so neither do we." If the tenant pays, great, I halt the eviction process. Late fees equal more revenue plus I've got documentation of the late payment that I can use if I need to evict down the road. If they don't pay, the eviction process has already begun so lost revenue is minimized. As far as lease violations go, they just get the one written warning along with a hefty fine. Failure to cure or subsequent violation results in automatic eviction. It's so much easier to just serve notices than it is to track people down, listen to excuses, haggle over details, etc. I don't do any of that anymore. It's simply business. It sounds like you're already on the right path since you mentioned you served her notices, so you're off to a solid start. Good luck!
