Serving your tenant with a 3 Day Notice informs them that they have 3 days to pay the overdue rent they owe you, or they have to move out. A three day notice can be delivered as soon as the rent is due, and in most counties is required before evictions proceedings can begin. If you have a lease, you should review it to determine what day of the week payment is officially due, and to make sure the lease doesn?t specify a different length of notice before evicting your tenants (i.e. a 30 day notice).
Calculating the 3-day period incorrectly on the notice or filing the case in court before the expiration of the three day time period will likely result in your case being dismissed. Weekends and holidays observed by state agencies should not be included when calculating the 3-day time period. For example: a three day notice served on Tuesday, July 3 would expire on Monday, July 9, because you would not count holidays (July 4), or weekends (Saturday, and Sunday). So make sure you don’t start your evictions proceeding before the expiration of the 3 day notice period, or your landlord tenant action will be dismissed.
You can only ask for rent amounts that are overdue in your 3 Day Notice. Do not include a demand for money that is not ?rent?, such as utilities, security deposits, late fees or other costs. If you have a lease in effect with your tenant and any of the preceding costs are defined as ?additional rent? in the lease, then you may include it in the amount due in the three day notice. If you claim items other than rent in your three day notice or money that is not due yet (future rent), your evictions proceeding can be dismissed by the court.
The three day notice should be served personally on the tenant. In some states, verbal notification is sufficient (i.e. it is not necessary to give your tenant written notice if you verbally tell them they have to pay rent or move out within 3 days). A landlord lawyer in your area can advise you of your state?s laws via e-mail or telephone.
If personal service is not an option, you can also mail the three day notice to the tenant. However, please note that you usually must add 5 days each way for mail time, depending on your court’s requirements. In other words if you use the mail to deliver petitions, you have to allow 13 days before commencing an evictions proceeding (3 days + 5 days + 5 days).
There are some circumstances where delivering the notice via the mail is the only option or where the tenant will always be allowed to mail a response to a three day notice. This typically happens when the landlord uses a P.O. Box or an out-of-town address for the tenant to mail rent to.
If your tenants pay you the full amount due as per your three day notice, you must accept the money, and you can no longer evict the tenant for non-payment of rent. If the tenant only has part of the rent, you do not have to take it. If you accept partial payment of some of the rent, then the three day notice has been partly complied with, and you can no longer oust the tenant for non-payment of rent. If you accept rent and you would still like to get rid of your tenant, instead of initiating a non-payment eviction proceeding, you must bring what?s called a holdover eviction proceeding. You should consult with a landlord tenant attorney in your state for more information about the requirements to bringing a holdover proceeding.
If there are any deficiencies in your 3 Day Notice, or if you bring an incorrect type of evictions proceeding, courts such as the court will dismiss your case. If you?re not from Suffolk County or Nassau County, consult with your county?s court for their procedure. The consequence of a dismissal is that a new and correct 3-day notice must be served, and the proceeding has to be started again from scratch. This would allow the tenants to remain in the property for up to months longer than necessary.
Another conceivable result to bringing a defective eviction proceeding is that you may be held liable to your tenants for legal fees and costs associated with defending the evictions proceeding. This is why it is almost always better to hire a professional to handle the matter for you as quickly and expeditiously as possible.
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