State Specific Question About: DELAWARE (DE)

I am doing my first eviction in my life in Delaware any one who has helpful advice I will take it. I have sent out to certified/return receipt letters that have come back unopened or signed for, I have also sent out regular mail too. My husband was over there this morning with a vendor for a tune up on our propane unit and she threatened to sue the company for trespassing, we had given her about 48 hours notice that this was happening and she said she could not make it, however, my husband wrote back that was the only time he had to be there. I know the Code said 48 hours notice for this, he emailed her on Monday morning and the appointment was for Wednesday sometime, we were not given a time until this morning. I just want to get rid of her and want to do it the right way.. Thanks for any information. Sue Ann

Hire a lawyer to do the eviction for you, there are too many small details that HAVE TO BE done correctly.

Let the lawyer serve whatever notices are required. Many states (CA included) do not allow for service of legal notice by e-mail, plus if tenant is unwilling to acknowledge receipt of notices by certified mail, then they should be served personally.

You should not need to have the tenant present when doing scheduled repairs. Notice of intention to enter should be enough. You need to assert your right to enter without tenant being present.

Since you are unaware of how an eviction works, it will be worth your while to hire an attorney. Keep your eyes and ears open to learn about how its done.

In addition to what they are saying above about the Attorney - THEY WILL KEEP IT SIMPLE and to the law with NO "feelings" (no offense to any Attorney here).

What I mean by this is that many times, tenants will come to the court with a sob story hoping that the LL will "cave" (or the judge) and/or come up with a BUNCH of things as to WHY they didn't pay (mice, no heat, no hot water, roof leaks, things not getting repaired, etc). If you do go - make sure you are WELL prepared with ANY thing that they may have complained about and show your records (only if asked by the judge) that they were taken care of.

Otherwise - the safest bet would be to just have the Attorney represent you and they will keep it "on track" with "no pay - no stay".

Watch your attorney and learn the state laws. Evictions are usually in Small Claims court and you can learn to negotiate those quite well. Contact your Small Claims Court and find out if they have an information package for Evictions like mine does. Talk to other Landlords and find out how your judge/magistrate handles evictions. Judges all have hot buttons.

Have all your Documentation in place, learn the rules of court behavior, and keep the case short and without drama.

Dress well in respect to the judge and the court. Many times the Tenant will introduce the drama and end up winning the case for you. Do not roll your eyes, show emotion, or rebut the Tenant in court unless you must.

Nonpayment of rent is quite sufficient to win your case.

I have only responded to a Tenant once. Judge asked him how much rent he was currently paying, so she could determine a reasonable garnishment amount. He gave her a rate way too high. When he finished, I said, "Excuse me Your Honor may I make a point of information?" She said , "Go ahead." I said, " He lives with his mother." He confirmed that and she garnished him big time for the lie.

I agree that for your first eviction, having an attorney handle it would be a good thing. Especially since this might not be a simple eviction.

The most common and most simple eviction is for non-payment of rent. That does not appear to by your situation. You have not set forth any "cause" in your post for you to terminate a tenancy, and an attorney will be able to evaluate whether you have cause and if not, whether you can terminate without cause.

Tenant has no legal obligation to sign for certified mail. Tenant is free to ignore the "you have certified mail" notice from the Post Office. That is NOT a ground to terminate a tenancy, unless your lease has a very unusual provision about certified mail.

Tenant might have a right to more precise notice of your accessing the house than "sometime on Wednesday." I understand that you did not have any time window from the company, but that MIGHT BE your problem, not the tenant's.

An attorney can evaluate if your notice complied with the legal requirements. But even if it did, Tenant saying "I'm going to sue the HVAC Company for trespass" is probably not ground to terminate the lease. Have you heard of the concept of "free speech"?

Document the refusal to allow for servicing of the propane unit. If it does not function later for some reason, she may try to get you cited for not providing heat - and you can pull out your info to prove that you tried.

Sue, your addendum changes this entirely. In your original post, you said NOTHING about non-payment.

You need to evict for non-payment of rent. Forget everything else. Keep it simple. Non-payment of rent is the easiest eviction. Non-cooperation is one of the hardest. So make it easy!