How long can you stay in a house without paying rent?

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asked Jul 22, 2020 in Real Estate - Renting by iday8145 (300 points)
How long can you stay in a house without paying rent?

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answered Jul 22, 2020 by Zoeyb (580 points)
When you're renting a house or apartment and you don't pay the rent then you usually have up to 10 days as a grace period to pay the rent along with any late fees.

Then if you don't pay the rent or late fees within those 10 days the landlord can give or send you a pay or quit notice which means you have to leave or face going to court for eviction.

If you don't leave then the landlord will take you to court for eviction and it can usually take a month or two to even get to court.

But it depends on the state and how busy the courts are.

Once the court and judge orders you to leave then you must leave within the time they give you and if not a sheriff will come to forcefully evict you.

If I could not pay rent and I was gonna be evicted I would just tell the landlord that I cannot pay the rent and to give a week or two weeks at least to get my stuff out and I would then move on.

It's not worth the time, hassle and the records you'll have on your rental record to go to court.

A landlord cannot evict you in just 3 days even when you don't make the rent payment.

However if you're late on rent and the landlord wants to evict you the landlord must give you a 3 day notice to either get out of the rental place or pay the rent and late fees.

If you do not get out or pay the rent and late fees then the landlord will have to take you to court to legally evict you.

You however can just pack up and leave and not go to court which is better for your rental history because having court evictions on your record is not good for finding other rental places to live.

But a landlord has to take you to court to actually get you evicted forcefully.

It takes longer than 3 days to be forcefully evicted.

It can take as long as 6 months in some places to be evicted through court order but the best thing to do if possible is to just up and leave and avoid court.

If a landlord takes you to court for eviction and you do not appear in court for the eviction then the judge will automatically rule in the favor of the landlord.

So the landlord will win and the judge will then issue an eviction order which then means that the judge will have a sheriff show up at the residence and order you to leave within a certain time.

They may give you a few days to get out or they may order you to leave right away.

If you do not leave the police will arrest you and take you to jail for failure to obey the eviction order.

The best thing to do would be to get your stuff out and move out.

Always show up in court and try to get an extension on the eviction or at least get enough time to get your stuff out.

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