Eviction

What Is Eviction?

Eviction is the legal process a landlord uses to regain possession of a rental home from a tenant. Its names vary by state. California calls the case an “unlawful detainer,” New York calls it a “summary proceeding,” and other states use terms like “forcible entry and detainer.” Eviction law is mostly state and local law, so notice periods, defenses, and timelines differ widely.

Researchers separate formal evictions, which go through court, from informal evictions, in which a tenant leaves after a threat, a cash offer, or a refusal to make repairs. Informal moves are common but rarely counted.

How It Works

A typical formal eviction follows these steps:

1. Notice. The landlord serves written notice, such as a notice to pay rent or move out, or a notice that the tenancy is ending.
2. Filing. If the tenant stays, the landlord files a case in housing or civil court.
3. Hearing. A judge hears the case, often within weeks. If the tenant does not appear, the court usually enters a default judgment for the landlord.
4. Judgment. If the landlord wins, the court orders possession and may award back rent and costs.
5. Removal. If the household still has not left, a sheriff or marshal carries out the order.

A filing alone can appear on tenant-screening reports and make it harder to rent again, even when the case is dismissed.

How Common Eviction Is

National figures come from researchers who collect court records. The Eviction Lab at Princeton University first counted roughly 2.35 million eviction filings and about 898,000 eviction judgments in 2016, or about one filing for every 17 renter households between 2000 and 2016. The lab warned that those figures undercounted the total because it lacked complete records in some states, including New York and California.

The lab’s later estimates are higher. It now reports that landlords file about 3.6 million eviction cases in a typical year, and that the 3.6 million cases filed in 2018 involved 2.7 million separate households.

Policy Responses

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) imposed a nationwide eviction moratorium. On August 26, 2021, the Supreme Court concluded that the agency had almost certainly exceeded its legal authority and allowed a lower-court ruling against the moratorium to take effect, which ended it.

Longer-term responses include:

• Emergency rental assistance to pay arrears before a case is filed or decided
• Right to counsel for tenants in eviction court. New York City offers free legal services for tenants facing eviction in every ZIP code.
• Just-cause eviction rules that limit the reasons a tenancy can end
• Sealing eviction records, so a dismissed case does not follow a tenant