Checklist · Real Estate

Residential Landlord-Tenant Compliance and Eviction: A Practical Checklist

42 U.S.C. § 3601

Type: Checklist
Jurisdiction: National
Date: 2024-07-09
Topic: Real Estate

Residential landlord-tenant law is statutory, local, and unforgiving of procedural error: a landlord who is right on the merits routinely loses because the notice was one day short or the security deposit was never placed in a separate account. This checklist walks the full arc from lease and disclosures through habitability, fair housing, rent accounting, grounds for termination, the notice to quit, the summary-process complaint, the tenant's defenses and counterclaims, judgment, the writ of possession, and post-possession deposit accounting. It teaches the framework and the majority and uniform-act approach — the Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, the implied warranty of habitability after Javins v. First National Realty Corp., the Fair Housing Act, and the federal lead-paint disclosure rule — and flags at every step where your state will differ. A running worked example follows Beacon Street Properties, a small landlord who files a clean nonpayment case and walks straight into a habitability counterclaim. The single non-negotiable rule appears first: self-help eviction is illegal essentially everywhere, and the penalties for it dwarf the rent you were owed. Confirm every deadline, notice period, and deposit rule against your own state's statute and your local ordinance before you act.

Residential Landlord-Tenant Compliance and Eviction: A Practical Checklist

Real Estate > Landlord-Tenant | Published 9 July 2024 - Updated 15 August 2025 | UpLaw - uplaw.us

Eviction is not a remedy you take. It is a remedy a court gives you. Every shortcut between those two sentences — changing the locks, hauling out the furniture, cutting the heat — converts a landlord with a valid claim into a defendant with a serious one.

Keywords: residential lease, eviction, summary process, unlawful detainer, notice to quit, implied warranty of habitability, security deposit, lead paint disclosure, Fair Housing Act, retaliatory eviction, writ of possession, self-help eviction, rent ledger, tenant defenses

Start here: eviction is a statutory process, and self-help is illegal

Residential landlord-tenant law is one of the most aggressively state-specific fields in American practice. There is no federal eviction code. What exists is a patchwork: fifty state landlord-tenant acts, thousands of municipal rent and just-cause ordinances, and a body of common law overlaid by two federal statutes that reach essentially every rental in the country — the Fair Housing Act, 42 U.S.C. § 3601 et seq., and the disclosure rule of the Residential Lead-Based Paint Hazard Reduction Act, 42 U.S.C. § 4852d. Many states have adopted some version of the Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act (URLTA), which supplies the vocabulary this checklist uses; others retain their own statutory schemes with different terminology and different numbers.

Everything below is a framework, not a rule book. Every number in it — every notice period, cure period, deposit cap, interest rate, stay of execution, and storage obligation — must be confirmed against your own state's statute and your local ordinance before you rely on it. Where this document names a state, it does so as an illustration of a pattern, not as a statement of the law where you practice.

Three structural facts drive the entire process:

First, summary process is fast because it is narrow. Summary process (called unlawful detainer, forcible entry and detainer, or simply eviction depending on the state) is a stripped-down proceeding built for one question: who is entitled to possession right now? In Lindsey v. Normet, 405 U.S. 56 (1972), the Supreme Court sustained a summary eviction scheme against due-process and equal-protection attack, confirming that a state may limit the issues triable in a possession action and may move that action quickly. That speed is purchased with formality. Courts compensate for the compressed timeline by construing the statutory prerequisites strictly against the party invoking them — which is the landlord.

Second, the lease is no longer merely a conveyance. The old rule treated a lease as the transfer of an estate with independent covenants: the tenant's duty to pay rent survived the landlord's failure to repair. Javins v. First National Realty Corp., 428 F.2d 1071 (D.C. Cir. 1970), buried that rule for urban residential tenancies, holding that a warranty of habitability is implied into the lease and that the tenant's rent obligation is dependent on the landlord's performance. The overwhelming majority of states have followed, by decision or by statute. The practical consequence: a nonpayment case is never only about nonpayment.

Third, self-help is prohibited. Lockouts, utility shutoffs, removing doors, removing possessions, and harassment designed to force a tenant out are unlawful in essentially every jurisdiction, and the remedies are punitive — statutory multiples of actual damages or of the monthly rent, the tenant's attorney's fees, and in some states treble damages or consumer-protection liability. URLTA-based acts expressly prohibit unlawful ouster, exclusion, and the willful diminution of services, and give the tenant a statutory recovery. A landlord who is owed $4,000 and changes the locks can end up writing a check for many times that.

[ ] Identify the governing law: your state landlord-tenant act, plus any local rent-stabilization, tenant-protection, or just-cause ordinance.
[ ] Confirm whether the tenancy carries federal overlays (Section 8 / HUD-subsidized, LIHTC, public housing, or VAWA protections), each of which adds good-cause and notice requirements on top of state law.
[ ] Calendar the entire sequence backward from the hearing date the court will actually give you, not the one you hope for.
[ ] Write the rule at the top of your file: no lockout, no utility shutoff, no removal of property, ever.

Why it matters, and the traps. The single most expensive mistake in this practice area is treating eviction as a business decision rather than a litigation matter. It is litigation. It has pleadings, service rules, defenses, counterclaims, a judgment, and an enforcement mechanism, and it deserves the same discipline you would bring to any civil case — run the intake analysis in Evaluating a New Civil Case: A Practical Checklist before you commit, and be honest about whether a negotiated move-out beats a judgment you may never collect. Choosing a Dispute-Resolution Forum: Litigation, Arbitration, and Mediation Compared is worth a read on that point, with one caveat specific to this field: possession claims almost always belong in the statutory housing forum, and arbitration clauses in residential leases are restricted or unenforceable in a number of states.

What varies by state (the confirm-before-you-act table)

Do not carry a number from one state into another. These are the variables that change most often, and each one is capable of destroying an otherwise sound case.

Variable	Typical range of approaches	Where to confirm
Nonpayment notice period	Very short (a few days) to two weeks or more; some states require a demand before the notice	State landlord-tenant act; summary-process statute
Right to cure nonpayment	Cure by payment before expiration; cure up to (or even at) judgment; no statutory cure at all	Statute plus local ordinance
Lease-breach notice	Notice to cure, then notice to terminate; some breaches non-curable by statute	Statute; lease terms
No-cause termination	Available with notice in many states; abolished or restricted in just-cause jurisdictions	State act; municipal just-cause ordinance
Security-deposit cap	Commonly stated in months of rent; some states also restrict last-month's rent	Deposit statute
Deposit account and notice	Separate account, in-state bank, interest, written notice of location — or none of this	Deposit statute
Post-possession accounting deadline	Commonly a fixed number of days from termination or surrender	Deposit statute
Late-fee limits	Grace periods, percentage caps, reasonableness requirements, or silence	State act; consumer statutes
Service of the notice to quit	Personal, substituted, posting-and-mailing, constable/sheriff only	Summary-process statute
Stay of execution	Automatic appeal stay; discretionary hardship stay; both	Summary-process statute; local rule
Personal property after levy	Storage, notice, redemption period, disposal process	Statute; sheriff's office practice

Fill this table in for your jurisdiction once, in writing, and keep it in the file. Every phase below assumes you have.

Phase 1 — The lease, required disclosures, and security-deposit rules

[ ] Use a written lease that identifies the parties, the premises (unit number included), the term, the rent, the due date, and the landlord's agent for service of notices.
[ ] Deliver the federal lead-paint disclosure and the EPA/HUD lead-hazard pamphlet for any dwelling built before 1978; obtain the tenant's signed acknowledgment and retain it for at least three years.
[ ] Deliver every state and local disclosure: mold, bedbug history, flood history, radon, utility-sharing formulas, rent-control status, and the identity and address of the owner or manager.
[ ] Collect no more deposit than the statutory cap allows, and check whether your state also caps or bars last-month's rent collected alongside a deposit.
[ ] Place the deposit exactly where the statute requires — frequently a separate, interest-bearing account at an in-state institution — and give the tenant the written receipt or notice the statute demands (institution, account identification, interest terms).
[ ] Complete a dated, photographed move-in condition statement, signed by both parties. This document wins the deposit fight two years later.
[ ] Strike unenforceable clauses: waivers of habitability, waivers of the right to a jury where prohibited, confessions of judgment, blanket attorney-fee shifting where barred, liquidated "eviction fees," and any clause purporting to authorize self-help.

Why it matters, and the traps. Lead-paint noncompliance under § 4852d is not a technicality: the statute carries civil penalties and a private right of action, and it authorizes treble damages against a landlord who knowingly violates it. Security-deposit statutes are the other landmine, because they are frequently strict liability and remedial — the landlord's good faith and the tenant's arrears are both irrelevant. In a number of states, a landlord who commingles the deposit or fails to send the required account notice forfeits the right to retain any of it and owes the tenant a statutory multiple; Massachusetts is the standard cautionary example, where its security-deposit statute exposes a landlord to multiple damages and fees for certain violations, and where some deposit violations can be raised defensively in a nonpayment case. Whether your state goes that far is a question you must answer before the tenancy begins, not after it ends. The point is structural: a modest deposit, handled carelessly, can become the most expensive object in the file.

Practitioners who work both sides of the lease line should compare the very different default rules explained in Commercial Leases: A Comprehensive Guide to Negotiating and Drafting — residential tenants receive by statute the protections that sophisticated commercial tenants must negotiate for one clause at a time, as Reviewing a Commercial Lease: A Practical Checklist makes clear. Landlords who acquired the building recently should also confirm what they actually took title to and what tenancies survived the closing; see Buying and Selling a Home: A Comprehensive Legal Guide from Contract to Closing and Closing a Residential Real Estate Purchase: A Practical Checklist, which cover the estoppel certificates, deposit transfers, and rent prorations that decide who is holding whose money.

Phase 2 — The implied warranty of habitability and the duty to repair

[ ] Deliver and maintain the premises in compliance with the applicable housing, building, and sanitary codes: heat, hot water, running water, working plumbing and electrical service, a weathertight structure, working locks, and freedom from vermin infestation.
[ ] Publish a clear, low-friction repair-request channel, require written or app-logged requests — then respond in writing, every time, even when the answer is "we are scheduling the vendor."
[ ] Log every request: date received, date inspected, date repaired, vendor, invoice number, and photographs of the completed work.
[ ] Respond to code-enforcement inspections promptly and document the abatement, including the re-inspection.
[ ] Understand the tenant's statutory remedies in your state: rent withholding or escrow, repair-and-deduct (often capped), rent abatement, and termination for material noncompliance.
[ ] Know the notice condition. Under URLTA-style acts, the tenant must give the landlord written notice of the defect and a reasonable opportunity to cure before invoking most remedies.

Why it matters, and the traps. Javins made habitability a dependent covenant, and modern statutes gave it teeth. The tenant who stops paying because the boiler failed is not simply a deadbeat; she may have a defense to possession and an affirmative claim measured, in the approach many courts take, by the difference between the rent she agreed to pay and the fair rental value of the unit in its defective condition — sometimes with a further deduction for out-of-pocket losses.

The tenant's notice requirement is your friend, because it means the paper trail usually decides the habitability fight. The landlord who can produce a dated work order and a vendor invoice for every complaint generally wins it; the landlord who produces a repair log created the week before trial does not. The trap is the "minor" defect that a code inspector later characterizes as a violation. A dripping faucet is not a breach of the warranty. A dripping faucet, plus a cited plumbing violation, plus three months of ignored texts, is.

Phase 3 — Fair housing and anti-discrimination compliance

[ ] Apply written, uniform tenant-selection criteria (income multiple, credit threshold, rental history, criminal-history policy) to every applicant identically — and keep the applications you deny, not just the ones you accept.
[ ] Never advertise, screen, steer, or comment in a way that indicates a preference or limitation based on race, color, religion, sex (including sexual orientation and gender identity), national origin, familial status, or disability. See 42 U.S.C. §§ 3604, 3617.
[ ] Grant reasonable accommodations and permit reasonable modifications for tenants with disabilities. An assistance animal is an accommodation, not a "pet"; no-pet policies and pet fees generally must yield.
[ ] Check your state and local protected classes — many jurisdictions add source of income (including housing vouchers), age, marital status, military or veteran status, and limits on criminal-record screening.
[ ] Audit any blanket criminal-history or credit screen for disparate-impact exposure; categorical criminal-record bans carry meaningful risk under HUD's guidance and enforcement posture.
[ ] Never use an eviction, a rule change, or a fee as a response to a fair-housing complaint or an accommodation request.

Why it matters, and the traps. The FHA reaches conduct undertaken because of a protected characteristic and, under Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs v. Inclusive Communities Project, Inc., 576 U.S. 519 (2015), also reaches facially neutral policies with a disparate impact — subject to a robust causality requirement and careful pleading. Discrimination is both a defense and a counterclaim in the eviction, and it moves the dispute out of a small-stakes housing court and into serious federal exposure. Section 3617 independently prohibits coercion, intimidation, and interference with the exercise of fair-housing rights.

The analytical machinery — pretext, comparators, mixed motive — will look familiar to anyone who has read Employment Discrimination Law: A Comprehensive Guide; the proof structures are close cousins, and the evidentiary instincts transfer directly.

The classic trap is the inconsistently enforced rule. The landlord who has tolerated late payment from four tenants for years and then terminates the fifth — who happens to have just requested a wheelchair ramp — has manufactured the tenant's case for her, and the four tolerated tenants are her comparators.

Phase 4 — Rent, late fees, and the ledger you will need in court

[ ] Maintain a single authoritative rent ledger: date due, amount due, amount received, date received, form of payment, and running balance.
[ ] Apply payments in a consistent, disclosed order (rent first, then fees) — never in a way that manufactures a "nonpayment" out of an unpaid late fee.
[ ] Confirm your state's late-fee rules: grace periods, percentage caps, reasonableness requirements, and restrictions on charging fees to voucher tenants on the full contract rent.
[ ] Do not charge fees the statute does not permit — "administrative charges," "notice fees," "court-prep fees," and pre-judgment attorney-fee add-ons are recurring sources of liability.
[ ] Understand what accepting rent does. In many states, accepting rent after a notice to quit expires waives the notice and reinstates the tenancy unless you accept it expressly, in writing, for use and occupancy only.
[ ] Preserve the ledger, the lease, the notices, the photographs, and the communications the moment a dispute becomes foreseeable — see Issuing a Litigation Hold and Preserving ESI: A Practical Checklist. Text messages between a manager and a tenant are the single most commonly spoliated evidence in this practice.

Why it matters, and the traps. The rent ledger is your case. In a nonpayment eviction, the prima facie case is essentially: a valid tenancy, rent due, rent unpaid, proper notice, notice expired, tenant still in possession. The ledger proves three of those six elements — and a sloppy ledger (undated cash receipts, unexplained credits, fees folded into the "rent" line) destroys them. Judges in housing court read ledgers for a living and can smell an improvised one from the bench.

Worked example. Beacon Street Properties, LLC owns a six-unit walk-up and rents Unit 3 at $1,800 per month. The tenant pays nothing in March, April, or May. Beacon's manager keeps a clean ledger: three missed payments, no partial tenders, no fees added, balance $5,400. That ledger is the reason Beacon can file a case in a week instead of spending a month reconstructing a year of payment-app screenshots — and it is the reason Beacon's amount claimed in the notice will be exactly right, which is the next thing that can kill the case.

Phase 5 — Grounds for termination: nonpayment, breach, holdover, no-cause

[ ] Classify the ground precisely, because the notice period and the cure rights turn on it:
- [ ] Nonpayment of rent — typically a short notice, usually with a statutory right to cure by paying the arrears within a defined window.
- [ ] Material breach of a lease covenant — often a notice to cure followed by termination if uncured; some breaches (illegal activity, serious threats to health or safety) may be non-curable by statute.
- [ ] Holdover after expiration of the term — no cure; the tenancy has simply ended, and the only question is possession.
- [ ] Termination of a periodic tenancy without cause — commonly keyed to the rental interval for a month-to-month tenancy, longer for longer intervals, and unavailable in just-cause jurisdictions.
[ ] Run the just-cause check before anything else. Several states (Oregon and California among them) have enacted statewide just-cause and rent-cap regimes, typically with exemptions and, for no-fault grounds, relocation-assistance obligations; a growing number of cities impose their own. These regimes change frequently — confirm the current statute and ordinance, including exemptions, rather than relying on any summary, including this one.
[ ] Verify the tenant's status: written lease, oral tenancy, tenancy at will, tenancy at sufferance, or a subtenant or occupant with independent rights. An occupant who is not a tenant of record still may not be removed by self-help.
[ ] Check federal overlays: subsidized tenancies generally require good cause and specific notice language, and VAWA protects survivors of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking from eviction based on the abuse committed against them.

Why it matters, and the traps. Picking the wrong ground is fatal, because the notice must match the ground and courts strictly construe the fit. A landlord who serves a short nonpayment notice and then tries the case as a lease-breach case has proved a claim he did not plead. Conversely, a landlord in a just-cause city who serves a no-cause notice has served a notice that terminates nothing at all — and has usually also started the retaliation clock running by giving the tenant a reason to complain to the housing agency.

Phase 6 — The notice to quit or notice to cure: content, timing, and service

[ ] Name every tenant of record, and identify the premises with precision, unit number included.
[ ] State the ground. For nonpayment, state the exact amount claimed as rent — not fees, not damages, not utilities unless your statute treats them as rent — as of the date of the notice.
[ ] State the cure right and the cure deadline, if the statute grants one, in the statute's own terms.
[ ] State the termination date correctly, and count the days the way the statute counts them: calendar or business days, day of service excluded or included, mailing days added.
[ ] Include any statutorily mandated language verbatim. Many states require a specific advisement of the right to cure, legal-aid contact information, or notice in a language other than English.
[ ] Serve exactly as the statute permits: personal delivery, substituted service on a person of suitable age and discretion, posting-and-mailing where authorized (often only after attempted personal service), or constable or sheriff service where required. Email and text are almost never sufficient service unless the statute expressly says so.
[ ] Obtain and keep proof of service: a return of service, an affidavit, a certificate of mailing.
[ ] Do not accept rent after the notice expires unless you intend to reinstate the tenancy, or you accept it expressly and in writing for use and occupancy only.

Why it matters, and the traps. This is where most landlord cases die. Notice requirements are strictly construed against the drafter, and courts routinely dismiss cases for defects that look trivial from the outside: the notice demanded rent plus a late fee, so the tenant could not "cure by paying the rent due"; the period ran from mailing rather than from receipt; the notice named one spouse but not the co-tenant; the notice was posted on the door in a state that permits posting only after two attempts at personal delivery. Service formalities are not empty ritual — Greene v. Lindsey, 456 U.S. 444 (1982), held that posting alone on an apartment door was constitutionally inadequate notice on the record before the Court, and state statutes have been drafted around that holding ever since.

A defective notice is generally not amendable mid-case. You dismiss, re-notice, and start over — having given the tenant a free month, a preview of your evidence, and a very good reason to hire a lawyer.

Worked example (continued). Beacon Street serves a notice to quit for nonpayment stating a balance of $5,400 — rent only, no late fees — delivered in hand by a constable, with a return of service. It quotes the statutory cure language verbatim and states a termination date computed under the statute's counting rule, not the manager's. The tenant does not cure. Beacon's notice is clean, and the notice is the first thing the court will scrutinize before it ever reaches the merits.

Phase 7 — Filing the summary process (unlawful detainer) action

[ ] File in the correct court — usually a housing court, justice court, or the district-court division with summary-process jurisdiction over the property's location.
[ ] Use the mandatory form complaint and summons where one exists. Many states have official summary-process forms and will reject anything else at the counter.
[ ] Plead the elements: the tenancy, the rent due (or the breach), the notice and its service, the expiration of the notice, and continued possession. The pleading discipline is the one described in Drafting a Federal Civil Complaint: A Practical Checklist, compressed onto a one-page form — the form is short, but every element still has to be there.
[ ] Attach the lease, the notice to quit, and the return of service.
[ ] Serve the summons and complaint exactly as the summary-process statute directs — often by constable or sheriff, with strict return-day timing.
[ ] Docket the entry or return day, the answer deadline, and the trial date. Summary process moves in days, not months.
[ ] Satisfy any pre-filing mediation, rent-assistance application, or "eviction diversion" requirement. Several states now condition filing (or the entry of judgment) on the landlord's participation.
[ ] Decide whether to join a money claim for unpaid rent and use and occupancy, or to reserve it for a separate action.
[ ] Prepare for a possible rent-escrow or use-and-occupancy order while the case is pending.
[ ] Expect discovery to be limited or to require leave; if you do get discovery and the tenant stonewalls, the mechanics are in Moving to Compel Discovery and Seeking Rule 37 Sanctions: A Practical Checklist, though housing-court practice compresses all of it.

Why it matters, and the traps. The summary-process calendar is brutal, and it is brutal in both directions. Answer deadlines are frequently measured from a return day rather than from service. A tenant's request for a continuance may be conditioned on paying use and occupancy into escrow — which is often the landlord's best practical outcome in a case that will not settle. Landlords who treat the return day as a soft date lose the way no one expects: they appear unprepared, without the ledger, without the vendor invoices, and without the witness who actually inspected the unit.

Before you file, run the case-assessment discipline in Evaluating a New Civil Case: A Practical Checklist, including the unglamorous question of whether a negotiated move-out — a modest payment, a waiver of arrears, a neutral reference — beats a judgment you may never collect against a tenant with no assets. A well-built pre-suit letter frequently produces exactly that result; see Writing an Effective Demand Letter: A Practical Checklist and, for the shorter form, Drafting an Effective Demand Letter: The Basics.

Phase 8 — The tenant's defenses and counterclaims

[ ] Expect and prepare to rebut, in roughly this order of frequency:
- [ ] Defective notice — wrong period, wrong amount, wrong parties, bad service. Usually dispositive, and usually raised first.
- [ ] Breach of the implied warranty of habitability — a defense that reduces or eliminates the rent owed, plus an affirmative claim for damages.
- [ ] Retaliation — most states presume a retaliatory motive when a termination, rent increase, or reduction in services follows within a statutory window of a code complaint, an organizing activity, or an assertion of tenant rights. The presumption shifts the burden to the landlord. The doctrine's common-law root is Edwards v. Habib, 397 F.2d 687 (D.C. Cir. 1968); today it is statutory almost everywhere, and the window and the burden differ by state.
- [ ] Discrimination or failure to accommodate — an FHA and state-law defense and counterclaim.
- [ ] Waiver by acceptance of rent after the notice expired.
- [ ] Security-deposit violations — in some states an independent bar to possession, not merely an offset.
- [ ] Payment, tender of the full arrears within the cure period, or accord and satisfaction.
[ ] Gather rebuttal proof before the return day: the repair log, work orders, invoices, inspection and re-inspection reports, photographs, and the manager's contemporaneous notes.
[ ] If retaliation is in play, build the independent-cause record. A nonpayment ledger that plainly predates the tenant's code complaint is the cleanest rebuttal there is.
[ ] Assess whether the counterclaims exceed the housing court's jurisdictional limit, trigger a jury right, or (if an FHA claim is filed federally) move the fight to a different courthouse entirely.
[ ] Work the defenses from the other side of the "v." — Answering a Complaint and Pleading Affirmative Defenses: A Practical Checklist is the mirror image of this phase and is worth reading whichever chair you sit in.
[ ] If the case is genuinely going to be tried, work Preparing for Trial: A Pretrial Order and Trial Readiness Checklist — compressed, but the exhibit list and witness outline discipline is identical.

Why it matters, and the traps. In many housing courts, contested nonpayment cases are not decided by whether rent was paid — it plainly was not — but by how much rent the tenant actually owed after abatement. The Javins framework lets the tenant argue that the reasonable rental value of a unit with an intermittent boiler and a rodent problem was $1,100, not $1,800. Multiply that shortfall across the tenancy and a confident "$5,400 arrears" case becomes a wash, or a net judgment for the tenant.

Worked example (continued). The tenant answers Beacon Street's complaint with a habitability counterclaim: no reliable heat from January through March, two code violations cited by the city inspector in February, and eleven unanswered text messages. Beacon's manager produces a plumber's invoice dated 3 February, a photograph of the replaced circulator pump, the vendor's work order, and the city's re-inspection certificate closing the violations. The court finds a two-week period of impaired heat, abates the rent by 25% for that period — roughly $225 — and enters judgment for Beacon for $5,175 plus possession.

Change one fact and the case inverts. Had Beacon ignored the texts and left the violations open, the abatement would have run for three months rather than two weeks and could have swallowed the claim entirely; and because the termination followed a code complaint, the statutory retaliation presumption would have been live, forcing Beacon to prove an independent, non-retaliatory ground by clear evidence. The invoices, not the argument, saved the case.

Phase 9 — Judgment, writ of possession, and the levy

[ ] Obtain the judgment and read what it actually says: possession only, or possession plus rent, costs, and fees.
[ ] Observe the statutory stay. Most states impose an appeal period and an automatic stay of execution before any writ may issue.
[ ] Anticipate a discretionary stay. Courts in many states may stay execution for hardship — illness, disability, the school year, an inability to relocate — often conditioned on the tenant's paying use and occupancy during the stay.
[ ] Apply for the writ of possession or execution and deliver it to the sheriff, marshal, or constable. Only that officer may remove the tenant.
[ ] Give any required pre-levy notice of the move-out date, in writing, in the form the statute or the officer requires.
[ ] Comply with the personal-property statute: storage at a bonded facility, written notice of where the property is, a redemption period, and a defined disposal process. Never put a tenant's possessions on the curb.
[ ] Never — at any stage, under any provocation — change the locks, remove a door, or shut off utilities on your own authority.

Why it matters, and the traps. The moment of levy is the moment of maximum liability. Landlords who have waited three months for a judgment become impatient in the last 72 hours and do the one thing that reverses the outcome. Wrongful-eviction and unlawful-ouster statutes typically award actual damages or a statutory multiple of the monthly rent, whichever is greater, plus attorney's fees; some states route the claim through a consumer-protection act carrying treble damages. A tenant who was going to be lawfully removed on Friday, and who was illegally locked out on Wednesday, now holds a claim worth more than the arrears — and, in some jurisdictions, a right to be restored to possession, which means you get to do the whole case over from the beginning, as a defendant.

Phase 10 — Security-deposit accounting after possession

[ ] Calendar the statutory deadline the day possession is recovered. It runs from termination or surrender, and it is short.
[ ] Send an itemized written statement of deductions with receipts or good-faith estimates, together with the balance of the deposit and any accrued interest.
[ ] Deduct only what the statute permits: unpaid rent, and damage beyond ordinary wear and tear. Ordinary wear and tear is never deductible, no matter what the lease says.
[ ] Compare the move-out condition to the signed, dated move-in statement and its photographs. This is the entire evidentiary contest.
[ ] Mail to the tenant's last known or forwarding address, and keep proof of mailing.
[ ] Do not attempt to keep the deposit as liquidated damages for the eviction itself.

Why it matters, and the traps. Deposit statutes are where the landlord who won the eviction loses the war. Missing the accounting deadline, even by days, forfeits the right to deduct anything in many states and triggers a statutory penalty — commonly double or treble the deposit, plus fees. The tenant who has lost possession and has nothing left to lose will file that claim in small claims court, and if you were late, it is close to unloseable for her. Send the letter on time, with receipts, even when the tenant owes you far more than the deposit. Especially then.

Common mistakes to avoid

Self-help. Locks, utilities, doors, belongings. It is the only mistake on this list capable of turning a $5,000 claim into a $50,000 liability, and it is entirely avoidable.
A notice that demands more than rent. Adding late fees, "legal fees," or damages to a nonpayment notice defeats the tenant's statutory cure right and gets the notice — and the case — thrown out.
Miscounting the notice period. Day of service, mailing days, weekends, holidays. Count it twice, and count it the way your statute counts it.
Accepting rent after the notice expires without an express, written "use and occupancy only" reservation. In many states that single check reinstates the tenancy.
Failing to name every tenant of record, and discovering at the levy that the unnamed co-tenant is not bound by the judgment.
Ignoring repair requests, then producing a repair log created the week before trial. Courts recognize litigation-manufactured evidence instantly, and it costs you the credibility you need on everything else.
Inconsistent enforcement of rules — the single most common source of fair-housing and retaliation exposure, and the easiest to prevent.
Commingling or misreporting the security deposit, or missing the post-possession accounting deadline.
Terminating "no-cause" in a just-cause jurisdiction — the notice is void on arrival, and the attempt is itself evidence.
Treating summary process as paperwork. Appear with the lease, the notice, the return of service, the ledger, the repair log, and a witness with personal knowledge.
Skipping the settlement conversation. An agreed move-out with a modest payment and a waiver of arrears is frequently cheaper and faster than a contested trial plus an uncollectible judgment.
Forgetting the lead-paint disclosure for a pre-1978 building — a federal violation with treble damages available for a knowing breach, entirely independent of who owes whom rent.

The consolidated checklist

Before the tenancy

[ ] Written lease; unenforceable clauses stricken
[ ] Lead-paint disclosure and pamphlet (pre-1978) with signed acknowledgment, retained
[ ] All state and local disclosures delivered
[ ] Deposit within the cap, in the required account, with the required written notice
[ ] Signed, dated, photographed move-in condition statement
[ ] Written, uniformly applied tenant-selection criteria; denied applications retained

During the tenancy

[ ] Habitability maintained; code compliance current; re-inspections closed out
[ ] Written repair-request channel; every request logged, answered, invoiced, photographed
[ ] Reasonable accommodations and assistance animals handled correctly
[ ] Clean rent ledger; lawful late fees only; consistent payment application
[ ] Rules enforced identically across every tenant

Terminating

[ ] Ground identified and confirmed available (just-cause check run)
[ ] Notice: correct parties, correct premises, correct ground, correct amount (rent only), correct cure language, correct period
[ ] Service exactly as the statute permits; proof of service retained
[ ] No rent accepted after expiration except expressly for use and occupancy

Litigating

[ ] Correct court; correct (often mandatory) form; elements pleaded; exhibits attached
[ ] Statutory service of the summons; return day and answer date docketed
[ ] Diversion, mediation, or rent-assistance prerequisites satisfied
[ ] Rebuttal file assembled: ledger, repair log, invoices, inspection reports, photographs, witness
[ ] Defenses anticipated: notice, habitability, retaliation, discrimination, waiver, deposit

Enforcing

[ ] Judgment entered; stay period observed
[ ] Writ of possession issued; levy by the officer only
[ ] Pre-levy notice given; personal property handled per statute
[ ] Zero self-help at every stage

After

[ ] Itemized deposit accounting with receipts, mailed within the statutory deadline
[ ] Money judgment collection assessed realistically before you spend another dollar on it

Primary authority

Fair Housing Act, 42 U.S.C. § 3601 et seq. — prohibited practices, 42 U.S.C. § 3604; interference, coercion, and retaliation, 42 U.S.C. § 3617.
Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs v. Inclusive Communities Project, Inc., 576 U.S. 519 (2015) — disparate-impact claims are cognizable under the FHA, subject to a robust causality requirement.
Residential Lead-Based Paint Hazard Reduction Act, 42 U.S.C. § 4852d — pre-1978 lead disclosure, with treble damages for a knowing violation; implementing rules at 24 C.F.R. Part 35 and 40 C.F.R. Part 745.
Fair Housing Amendments Act of 1988 — familial status and disability as protected characteristics; reasonable accommodations and modifications.
Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act — accommodations and accessibility obligations in federally assisted and public-accommodation contexts.
Violence Against Women Act housing protections — covered federally assisted housing.
Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act (URLTA) — the model behind many state acts: the landlord's duty to maintain fit premises, tenant remedies for noncompliance, prohibition of retaliatory conduct, prohibition of unlawful ouster and self-help, and limits on security deposits. Adoption and amendment vary; check what your legislature actually enacted.
Javins v. First National Realty Corp., 428 F.2d 1071 (D.C. Cir. 1970) — implied warranty of habitability in urban residential leases; the rent obligation is dependent on the landlord's performance.
Lindsey v. Normet, 405 U.S. 56 (1972) — summary eviction procedures and due process; a state may limit the issues triable in a possession action.
Edwards v. Habib, 397 F.2d 687 (D.C. Cir. 1968) — retaliatory eviction recognized as a defense.
Greene v. Lindsey, 456 U.S. 444 (1982) — service by posting alone on an apartment door held constitutionally insufficient on the record presented; service formalities are constitutional, not clerical.
State summary-process and unlawful-detainer statutes, and their notice-to-quit requirements — strictly construed against the landlord. Confirm, in your own state and municipality: the notice period, the cure right, the permitted service methods, the stay of execution, the deposit cap and accounting deadline, late-fee limits, personal-property procedures, and any just-cause requirement.

Secondary sources. Powell on Real Property and the Restatement (Second) of Property: Landlord and Tenant remain the standard treatments of the underlying estate concepts and of the habitability transformation. For anything operational, your state's landlord-tenant practice manual and the local housing-court bench book are indispensable and should be your first stop for the official notice and complaint forms.

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This checklist is general legal information from UpLaw (uplaw.us), not legal advice, and does not create an attorney-client relationship. Residential landlord-tenant law is intensely state- and city-specific; notice periods, deposit rules, just-cause requirements, and eviction procedures vary widely and change often. Verify current requirements in your jurisdiction and consult qualified counsel before acting.