How Long Will it Take to Evict a Tenant
From My Maryland Rental Property?
This answer is evolving due to the ongoing situation caused by the COVID-19 Pandemic and its effect on the real estate market. A new order was issued, though, on October 1, 2021 by the Office of the Chief Judge. It outlines new legislation affecting Failure to Pay Rent cases. It says that landlords must provide to the tenants a written notice of the landlord’s intent to file unless the tenant pays all the rent claimed to be owed within 10 days.
| We would like to offer you our FREE E-Book. It is Investment Real Estate: Your Best Hedge Against Inflation . It will provide you with a wealth of general information about residential real estate beginning with how to build wealth with real estate.
It also explains the rental listing process and information about property management to protect your investment. Finally, you will learn about the services that we provide to our homeowners. |
You can easily set up a Zoom Meeting to get more information about our services. We can discuss your specific circumstances.
|
Provide us with a couple of times that you would like to meet for your 30-minute session. We think this is a better way to start than using just email, text messages and phone calls. Give it a try! Now let’s talk about the process under normal circumstances. In the State of Maryland, there is a “three-strike” rule for evictions from rental properties due to failure to pay rent. That means is could take a while! The time from start to finish can vary in each jurisdiction, too.
When a tenant fails to make a rent payment, the process begins. Assuming the rent is considered late on the 6th of the month, the Failure to Pay Rent action can be filed on the next business day. Depending on the jurisdiction, it will then take anywhere from 7 to 21 days for the case to make it onto the District Court docket.
If we prevail at the hearing (and we almost always do), the tenant then has 5 business days to pay the outstanding rent due, including late fees and your Court costs. If they do make the full payment in Certified Funds, then the process stops. If they do not make the payment, we then can file the Warrant of Restitution. This will allow the process of actually evicting the tenants to begin.
It normally takes 7 business days for the Judge to sign the Warrant of Restitution Motion. Once it is signed, the Judge will deliver it to the County Sheriff. We usually are not advised when this happens. The Sheriff will contact us to set an eviction date. Once again, depending on the jurisdiction, it could be as little as 30 days or as much as 120 days in the future. As a result, it could take up to six months for an eviction, from start to finish.
Tenants can have three Failure to Pay Rent judgments for possession against them in a 12-month period. The third time, though, they cannot stop the eviction unless the homeowner decides to not proceed.
Please be sure to review the other FAQs From Landlords if you are interested in buying a home. Also review the other FAQs from Property Management Clients to learn more about real estate investing.