How to Evict a Tenant in Alabama

In Alabama, you can evict someone for breaking the terms of the lease or not paying rent. If your renter has a month-to-month tenancy, you can simply give them 30 days' notice that you're ending the lease—no eviction required. You cannot evict someone for violating terms that have been added to the lease without written agreement. You also cannot evict anyone as a form of retaliation.

1. Serve your tenant with an Unlawful Detainer or Failure to Vacate

To evict a tenant in Alabama, you may pursue an Unlawful Detainer procedure or a Failure to Vacate procedure.

A Failure to Vacate procedure is a criminal action and may only be used if the tenant has not paid rent. In this case, you’ll need to give 10 days' written notice. If the tenant doesn’t leave within 10 days, the tenant can legally be charged with a misdemeanor and will appear in court. They may be responsible for paying up to $25 for each day they stay in the unit after the notice period comes to a close.

An Unlawful Detainer procedure requires written notice given to the tenant telling them that they need to leave. You must give 30 days' notice if you are terminating a month to month tenancy. You must give 14 days' notice if the tenant is being evicted for violating the terms of the lease. We’ve created a template for this kind of notice that you can customize and use here. You may give only 7 days notice if the tenant has not paid rent. We’ve created a template for this kind of notice that you can customize and use here. Notice must be served in person and must include the reason for eviction and the tenant’s name, as well as their address.

If the tenant is being evicted for unpaid rent, they may pay the rent within seven days—but you should not accept any partial payments of rent. If you accept anything less than the payment in full, it will make your original notice to vacate null and void. If the tenant is being evicted for breaking the terms of the lease, they have 14 days to fix the problem.

2. File papers with the court

If the notice period has come to a close and the issues have not been fixed, you must file with the court and serve to the tenant a Summons and Complaint for Unlawful Detainer. If your tenant is being evicted for unpaid rent, they have 14 days to respond to this document. If they are being evicted for any other reason, they will have only seven days to respond. If they ignore you completely and don’t respond at all, the judge will probably rule in your favor.

3. Go to court

You and the tenant will appear in front of a judge. The burden of proof is on you to show that the tenant violated the terms of the lease and that you correctly served notice, so be sure to follow these instructions carefully while documenting everything. If the judge rules in your favor, the tenant may be responsible for paying you unpaid rent, attorney’s fees and process fees.

4. Give your subtenant a week to vacate

Your tenant then will be offered seven days to appeal the ruling. If the seven days pass and your tenant has still not vacated the unit, you can obtain a Writ of Possession, which will be served to the tenant by a sheriff. They will either be offered several days to leave or will be physically removed by the police. If your tenant leaves things in the unit, you may not dispose of them until 14 days have passed after they’ve vacated.

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