As a landlord, your goal is to provide housing for responsible tenants and earn a reasonable income by providing that service. Unfortunately, issues can arise with a tenant that can make their time in your unit a legal or financial risk that you aren’t willing to take.
As an Ohio landlord, you have the right to initiate eviction proceedings under certain circumstances in order to remove tenants who will not leave of their own volition. However, you generally have to have grounds for an eviction, so learning about those circumstances that allow an eviction can help you make better decisions about your rental properties.
You can evict tenants who don’t pay their rent
You likely have specific language in your lease related to the payment of rent by your tenants. For example, you may charge a late fee after a certain point. Ideally, your lease will include provisions about when you can take legal action over a late payment. However, even if you don’t have a clause like that in your lease, when a tenant has gone one month or more without paying rent, you may be able to evict them on grounds of non-payment.
You can evict tenants who make, sell or use drugs on your property
Ohio law is clear about the abuse of controlled substances and the rights of a landlord. In theory, your property could be subject to seizure if it plays a role in drug operations. Therefore, if you realize that one of your tenants has begun selling drugs, making drugs or using drugs in one of your units, evicting them won’t just end the nuisance of police calls or complaints from other tenants, but it will also protect your property from civil asset forfeiture due to its relationship with a drug crime.
You can evict tenants who violate the terms of the lease
You probably have specific rules and requirements for your tenants that you outlined in your lease. From noise curfews enforced out of consideration for other tenants to rules about additional occupants or pets, you have the right to set terms about how someone uses the property they rent from you.
If you have evidence of them violating those terms in your lease, you can use that as grounds for eviction as well. In some cases, tenants may resolve issues on their own if you alert them to the potential of eviction. Other times, you will have to go to the courts and get an order to have them removed from the property.