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FILING
AN EVICTION IN LOUISIANA
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Month-to-Month Tenants If
you rent by the month and do not have an agreement
as to how long your rental will last, you are a
"month-to-month" tenant.
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If you are a
month-to-month tenant, your landlord can evict you
for "no cause" or reason. But the landlord must
give you 10 days' notice in writing before the end
of the current rental period. If the
landlord does not give you the right notice, the
judge should order the landlord to start the
eviction process over - usually for the next
month. Defenses to these 10 day "no
cause" evictions are limited.
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If you do
something to break your agreement, like not paying
your rent, your landlord can generally evict
you on 5 days' notice.
Written Lease
or Subsidized Housing
If you have a written lease or if you live in
subsidized housing, your landlord usually needs a
good reason to evict you. For example, failure
to pay rent or another violation of the lease.
If your lease has run
out you may be evicted without a good reason, unless
you live in public housing or certain types of
subsidized housing.
Your landlord cannot legally
evict you until he gets a court order allowing the
eviction. If your landlord tries to evict you without
getting a court judgment, call the police. They
should help you as long as there is no court order.
As in most states, the landlord cannot legally
change the locks, shut off your utilities or try to
keep you out of your home.
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A Notice to Vacate
means that your landlord plans to file a lawsuit for
your eviction if you don't move out by the end
of the notice period.
It is not a court order
to move out. The landlord cannot get a court order
for eviction until there has been a trial before a
judge. If you get a Notice to Vacate, you
should quickly decide what to do. If you want to
stay, you should first try to work out a deal with
the landlord. Some landlords just want their
rent paid.
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Find
Louisiana Eviction Lawyers
with RentLaw.com
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If you don't have a
good eviction defense, you should move. You
need to find a new apartment before the landlord
can get a court order evicting you.
If you do not move
out by the end of the Notice to Vacate period,
your landlord may have you served with court
papers called a "Rule for Possession."
A Rule for
Possession is a lawsuit by the landlord asking
that you be evicted. The Rule for Possession
should tell you the date, time and place of the
trial and the reasons why the landlord wants to
evict you.
The Rule for
Possession asks the court to hold a trial and
decide whether you can be evicted. If you
want to fight the eviction, you have the right
to be heard in court and present your defenses.
A landlord
generally does not have to accept late rent
unless it was within a grace period. The
landlord may refuse the rent and sue you for
eviction. If he later accepts the rent or
had a custom of accepting late rent, you may
have a defense to an eviction for nonpayment of
rent
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