Landlords are often faced with a situation where they are seeking to evict a tenant, who then attempts to pay part of what is owed. Until very recently, our advice was always to refuse partial rent payments unless the landlord was willing to delay the eviction. That’s because of a very old rule in North Carolina law that accepting rent with knowledge of a breach of the lease waives that …Read More
The question we get asked more often than any other from landlords is, “My tenant is not paying rent – can I change the locks?” The answer is a resounding “NO!” This is particularly true with residential tenants, but is also the safest course in commercial leases. Instead of resorting to “self-help” by changing the locks, the process for evicting a tenant in North Carolina is called summary ejectment, and …Read More
As anyone who has done work for or supplied material to a tenant in a space owned by someone else probably knows, a lien on a leasehold interest is usually not worth the cost of preparing it or serving it on the necessary parties. That’s because, generally, if the tenant is not paying you, it is probably not paying the landlord either, meaning that the lease term may end sooner …Read More
