Let’s face it, many renters clearly do not realize just how terrible it is for your future housing prospects to force your manager to evict you.  We see it all the time, the threat of eviction is brushed off as the short-term desires overpower the potential for later problems.

This however is a huge mistake, and we’ll explain why.  First, though let’s identify what exactly is an eviction, and how are they different from a judgment.

An eviction means that you were forced out of the property by the courts.  You had a court date while you still occupied the property, lost, and were instructed to vacate within 10 days.

A judgment can occur during an eviction, however, if you are not occupying the property at the time of a judgment you were not evicted.

As we noted in the title, we never accept applications with a past eviction, simple as that.  If there is an excuse, we won’t even entertain it.  We are not alone in this.  Most corporate property managers follow this policy, and many private landlords do as well.

There is something to be said about forcing your landlord to jump through so many frustrating hoops just to get someone in who will help them avoid losing their home.  Evictions are brutal for landlords, and with extremely rare exceptions they absolutely should not happen.  We understand if you can’t pay and have to leave (typically what leads to a judgment), but if you can’t pay and choose to instead park yourself in the home with the expectation that someone else should pay your rent until moments before the Sheriff comes and removes you, you will not get any sympathy from a landlord.  The fact is we rarely accept past judgments if no attempt was made to satisfy them, so evictions are absolutely toxic.

What does this mean? 

It means for the next 7 years at least, the majority of landlords will not even consider you as a tenant.  In what is these days a very competitive market for renters, your options will be cut to shreds, and you will only be considered for the absolute worst properties.  The reason those properties will accept evictions is because those without them won’t take those homes.

Another important point, evictions are much faster than they used to be

A couple of years back NC changed the laws regarding how quickly tenants could be evicted, and they are not friendly to non-paying tenants.  In the past evictions typically took at least 30 days, but now we have completed them in as little as 20.

So we are well aware of what you may consider to be the benefits of non-payment, free rent for a month or two, a temporary benefit to your cash situation, and the ability to easily move to another nice property (this time as it hasn’t hit your record yet), however, you are making a massive mistake if there is any chance that you will be moving two or more times in the next 7+ years, and since you’re having these payment problems now, let’s face it you will likely move much more than that.  Don’t take the easy route, you will absolutely regret it and we have no sympathy if you do…

Evictions are one of the most humiliating things one could ever deal with.  Have a plan B, C, and D in place before you start your lease because your landlord will not be one of them.  The process is fast these days typically being completely finalized in about 30 days.

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