Kentucky Eviction Process

Guide to the Eviction Process in Kentucky

Eviction in Kentucky:

Kentucky Eviction Laws

In the state of Kentucky, the eviction law depends on what county the property is in. If the property is in Barbourville, Bellevue, Bromley, Covington, Dayton, Florence, Lexington-Fayette County, Georgetown, Louisville-Jefferson County, Ludlow, Melbourne, Newport, Oldham, Pulaski, Shelbyville, Silver Grove, Southgate, Taylor Mill, or Woodlawn County, then the eviction law that applies is the Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act that is found in Section 500 of the Kentucky Revised Statutes. The Kentucky law for Forcible Entry and Detainer is found in Section 200 of the Kentucky Revised Statutes.  Tenants can view helpful pages when they are being evicted> Tenants Help Pages

 

 

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Kentucky Eviction Notice

The first step in the Kentucky Eviction Process is the landlord serving (delivering) the tenant with a Kentucky Eviction Notice. The Eviction Notice is different depending on why the landlord needs to evict the tenant, and whether the property is in one of the counties listed above that follows the Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act.

For Counties listed above that use the Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act (Barbourville, Bellevue, Bromley, Covington, Dayton, Florence, Lexington-Fayette County, Georgetown, Louisville-Jefferson County, Ludlow, Melbourne, Newport, Oldham, Pulaski, Shelbyville, Silver Grove, Southgate, Taylor Mill, and Woodlawn Counties):
If the landlord needs to evict the tenant for non-payment of rent (most common reason), the landlord needs to serve the tenant with a 7 Day Eviction Notice. This will give the tenant 7 days to pay the rent, and threatens them with an eviction lawsuit if they do not. If the landlord needs to evict the tenant because the tenant has breached the lease in some manner (drug activity, unauthorized pet, disturbances, etc.) the landlord must give the tenant a 14 Day Eviction Notice. This will give the tenant 14 days to fix the problem, and threatens them with an eviction lawsuit if they do not. If the landlord simply wants to end a month-to-month tenancy, or does not want a lease to automatically renew (non-renewal) the landlord should send a 30 Day Eviction Notice to the tenant, telling them when they must vacate.

For all other Counties not listed above that do NOT follow the Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act:
The landlord should look at the lease to see what the notice period is to evict. If there is no lease, or if the lease does not say what the notice period is, then the landlord must serve the tenant with a 30 Day Eviction Notice. This notice must be served by either hand delivering it to the tenant, leaving it with an adult who lives at the property, or leaving it in a conspicuous place on the property (a place where the tenant will find it).

 

 

Forcible Detainer Suit

What if the landlord has given the notice to the tenant, waited out the notice period (7 Days for Non-Payment Cases), but the tenant is still there? The landlord must now seek relief in court. The landlord should go to the Small Claims court for the jurisdiction where the property sits. The court clerk will tell the landlord if they are in the right court. The landlord should tell the clerk that they want to file an eviction case, and the clerk will give the landlord the proper forms to fill out. There will be a filing fee. The court clerk will set a Court Date for the eviction case, and will have the local Sheriff deliver what is called a “Writ of Forcible Detainer to the tenant. This Writ will tell the tenant that they are being sued for eviction, and when and where the court date will be.

 

Going to Court

The landlord must be present at the court date in order to win the eviction case. If the tenant does not show up, then the landlord will win automatically. It is very important that the landlord bring all possible evidence to court in order to prove their case to the judge. Examples of things to bring are leases, rent receipts, a copy of the eviction notice, witnesses, photographs, etc. If the landlord and tenant both show up, then they will each have a change to speak to the judge and present evidence. The judge will then rule on the case. If the judge rules for the landlord, the judge will give the tenant a certain number of days to either vacate the property or appeal (usually 7 days).

 

7 Days to Appeal

If the tenant appeals the original order, then the landlord must continue to show up at the new hearings in order to prove their case. If the tenant does not appeal, and still has not vacated after the 7 days, the landlord must move on to the next step, Warrant of Possession.

 

Warrant of Possession

If the tenant has not vacated or appealed after the time given by the judge, the landlord must go back to the court clerk and request a “Warrant of Possession. This is also called a “Set-Out” Warrant. It will be issued by the court and will be posted by the Sheriff on the property. Then the Sheriff and the Landlord will meet at property at a designated time to remove tenant and the tenant’s property. The landlord should follow all the Sheriff’s instructions closely.

 

Go Back to Court to Recover Back Rent or Money Damages

If the judge in the original court case only awarded possession, then the landlord may need to go back to court after the eviction process to sue for back rent owed or money damages.

 

Warrant of Possession
A Judge will then sign a “set-out” Warrant. The Landlord and the Sheriff will agree on a date to have the Tenants property put outside the building. The “set-out” Warrant is hand delivered to the Tenant by the Sheriffs Deputies, or posted on the door. At the designated time the Landlords moving crew and Sheriffs Deputies will meet to evict the renters. A landlord can then go to Small Claims Court to recover back rent owed them.

 

WHEN THE LANDLORD AND DEPUTIES MEET AT THE PROPERTY:
The following is mandatory:
The Landlord will have, 3 able bodied people for the Eviction from an apartment (and 5 persons for a house).
One (1) hour is allotted for eviction so match your manpower accordingly.
The Tenants property will be placed in front of the property one (1) foot from the curb and not blocking the sidewalk.
The Landlord must leave the Tenants property there for forty-eight (48) hours from midnight after the set-out. After forty-eight hours the Landlord has the right to remove the Tenants property.
The Landlord should change the locks at this point in the eviction process.
The address must be visible on all rental property and each apartment must be numbered or identified properly.
Do not change the locks or enter the property prior to the Sheriffs Deputies arrival. This is for your safety.

 

Roommates: SHARING AN APARTMENT

 

 

In Kentucky when a tenant hasn’t departed the residence after you’ve given them notice to leave for breaching the lease (usually for non-payment), the legal phrase for that is forcible detainer, and to lawfully have them tossed out you must file a forcible detainer lawsuit; most other states use different terms on their paperwork, but an eviction is an eviction by whichever term. There are some key points which you must observe in order to successfully evict a tenant in Kentucky: You have to post notice of their breach – and you can’t simply just put it in the mail or tell them orally. The procedure that is most favored by property owners and accepted by the courts in Kentucky is to post the notice to the front door (except  Jefferson County/Louisville). Indeed, you literally tape a notice to the door. I know, that seems strange, as the wind could blow it off, or children take it off, or any number of things theoretically could happen and the tenant claim they never saw it (which quite a few of them do, even when they know good and well they saw it). But bear in mind, forcible detainer is technically a suit in rem (latin for “against the thing”) instead of a suit in personum (“against the person”). The rationale is the subject matter in a forcible detainer suit is possession of the property (it’s not a money suit; in Kentucky you have to file a separate action to get a judgment for the money a tenant owes you), which means that makes it in rem, and posting notice on the property proper to do. As an additional security, we take a date-stamped picture of the notice on the door, but our testimony that notice was posted usually will suffice.

 

It is necessary to have the appropriate amount of time on the notice. Kentucky law permits a forcible detainer notice to be as little as seven days, but only if this is actually in writing in your lease. If that written lease fails to state a notice period, then the general default in Kentucky is 30 days. Too many cases I’ve witnessed in which a poor landlord who is already out a month or two’s rent gets told by a judge that their notice period was too short and they have to wait another 30 days. There are other criteria which may come into effect if your payment period isn’t monthly, and your lease doesn’t state a notice period. The default notice period goes to the payment period if it is shorter than 30 days – stated another way if rent is paid bi-weekly, then the default notice period is more than likely also two weeks. If you have an oral lease, you are in a world of trouble to begin with, but the default notice period is normally going to be 30 days on an oral lease. One caveat: if you are in a Uniform Residential Landlord-Tenant Act area and the breach is something besides non-payment (illegal pet, etc.), the notice period is 14 days.

 

The notice must contain all the essential elements. It should state the date, the tenant’s name(s), the amount past due, a demand it be paid (“pay or quit” is often the phrase utilized) – or other type of breach cured -and notice of however many days is suitable to pay /cure or face eviction. Be careful accepting partial payments after the notice has been posted. It could be argued, and quite possibly successfully, that accepting a partial payment causes a need for a new notice period unless there are proper waiver terms in the lease. After the notice period is up, if the tenant has not paid/cured or vacated, then you must file a forcible detainer complaint. IMPORTANT: if the property is within an LLC, corporation or other arm’s-length entity, probably only an attorney can file the complaint. That is because your LLC is a separate “person” legally from you, and you can’t practice law for this other “person”.

The forcible detainer complaint is normally filed with the district court clerk in the county where the real estate is. See How to Fill Out the Kentucky Forcible Detainer Form. There will be court costs, and there will be a fee to serve (the sheriff or constable will post the court notice to the front door). The serving costs will vary by locale, though typically the cost of the two combined is somewhat over $100. Upon a guilty finding in the forcible detainer lawsuit, the tenant is typically liable for those costs (if you sue them for money they owe). Be aware of filing and court dates; within my county, for example, forcible detainers are heard on Wednesdays, but the complaint must be filed by noon the previous Thursday, or it will have to be carried over to the following Wednesday. The district clerk will have this information.

Jefferson County (Louisville) has a different forcible detainer form at http://courts.ky.gov/resources/legalforms/LegalForms/0561.pdf

For the story behind the federal court decision which makes things different in Louisville, click here. The Jefferson county form is still pretty similar to the regular form as far was what you have to do to fill it out.

Show up for court with the written lease in hand if you are representing yourself or acting as personal representative. If you have a statement showing the payment history, that’s good too. If the breach is something besides payment (too much noise, pets they aren’t allowed to have, unauthorized occupant, etc.), bring any kind of proofs you might have such as photographs, notes you’ve taken, phone call histories, etc.

 

A judge will take care of most all forcible cases quickly, and while the judge will usually give the tenants a short time to provide their side of things, there can be few defenses (other than proof they’ve actually paid/cured) that a tenant can bring up which will stop the complaint. Lack of notice is the prime defense, and that is mostly an issue of whether you have stated a notice period less than the default 30 days in the lease and did you provide the right notice period.

 

Occasionally it becomes apparent that the agreement is a contract for deed (land contract), which will defeat a forcible detainer since that involves title to the property and requires foreclosure first instead of eviction (I’ve seen this occur; it is devastating, since foreclosure and eviction can take a year. I personally would never sell a property under a contract for deed). The tenant can claim that they have paid you, but they’ll need some proof of payment for that to stick. About half the time the tenant won’t even show up and then you’ll get the judgment by default.

 

 

When the tenant does show up, often they will agree they currently owe money but then begin in on what difficult circumstances have caused them to get behind. The judge will usually be sympathetic, yet you’ll nonetheless get the judgement. Then you’ll occasionally get the types who claim as a defense that the landlord wouldn’t repair this or that. This will fail, because there are other legal processes they should have employed to make this assertion, and a rent strike is not suitable.

 

I’m working on another article on what it’s like when you are in court to post soon. It doesn’t need to be all that scary. When the judge finds the tenant guilty of forcible detainer, they will be given seven days to vacate (the day of the court hearing is not one of the seven days – that count starts on the next day). This will be the same in every case, no matter how much the tenant pleads with the judge, or how dire they claim their circumstances are, unless for some reason you are willing to go into an agreed order allowing more time. After the seven days are up, in case the tenant still has not vacated, then you get a warrant for possession.

 

You take the documents showing you have a forcible detainer judgment back to the district clerk, pay the fee (yes, another fee) and the judge will issue a warrant for possession; in most cases the clerks are authorized to sign the warrant for possession for the judge when you are there, but it is possible the judge may require signing the warrant personally and you might have to return to pick it up. You then take the warrant to the sheriff, and pay the fee (yes, yet another fee), and the sheriff will send a deputy to supervise the eviction. The sheriff’s deputy is there to enforce the court’s order (they will post the warrant for possession), and if necessary to make sure that the tenant(s) are vacated from the property, and will stay to ensure the peace if needed while you have the locks changed, property removed, etc.

There are laws dealing with a tenant’s property you want to get familiar with. You might be able to put a clause in your lease which basically says the property is abandoned when there is an eviction. Usually, the tenant’s stuff is simply put on the street, and that’s the end of it (if they won’t haul it off themselves). Be aware, though, that there are procedures governing property disposal which could affect you.

 

In our experience, nearly all (95% or more) of the tenants vacate close to the end of the seven days after the court order and it will be very rare you have to physically toss them with a warrant for possession. When you look at the whole process, a need never to delay becomes clear. Don’t delay until the tenant is already a month past when the rent was due to give notice, as this process will take the better part of another month at least. You need to give at least seven days’ notice, then it will be another 7-13 days after you file the complaint before the court hearing, and then the tenant receives another seven days before you can toss them. That’s a minimum of 21 days. Our policy is to post seven-day notice when the rent is six days past due.