How to evict a roommate: it depends on whose name is on the lease

Whether you can evict a roommate turns on one question: whose name is on the lease? If you are both co-tenants, you generally cannot evict them — you each have an equal right to occupy, and only the landlord can bring an eviction. If they are your subtenant (you hold the lease, they pay you), you are their landlord and can serve notice and file like any landlord. If they are a guest who moved in and never signed anything, they may still have acquired occupancy rights that require a formal process rather than a changed lock.

The three situations

1. Co-tenant — both on the lease. Neither of you can remove the other. Practical options: ask the landlord to pursue an eviction if the roommate has breached the lease; negotiate a lease amendment removing one party (the landlord must agree); or end the tenancy for everyone and start again. If the problem is unpaid rent, remember that joint and several liability means the landlord can pursue you for the whole rent, not just your share — which is why waiting rarely improves things.

2. Subtenant — your name on the lease, they pay you. You are their landlord. Serve the notice their situation calls for — pay or quit for unpaid rent, cure or quit for a fixable violation, or a termination notice if the arrangement is month-to-month — then file if they do not comply. Check first that your own lease permitted the sublet; an unauthorised sublet can put your tenancy at risk while you are busy dealing with theirs.

3. Guest or unauthorised occupant. A partner who moved in, a friend who stayed. Rights vary widely by state: some treat a long-staying occupant as a tenant, some as a licensee removable on reasonable notice, and a few provide a specific process for unauthorised occupants. Length of stay, whether they paid anything, and whether they receive mail there all matter.

What you cannot do, in every one of the three

Changing the locks, removing their belongings, cutting off the utilities, or making the place unliveable to force them out is unlawful eviction — with damages, penalties and, in some states, criminal exposure. It is unlawful even when they are not on the lease, even when they have stopped paying, and even when they are the one behaving badly. Judges see the self-help lockout constantly, and it converts a case you would have won into one you lose.

The practical sequence

1. Read the lease. Names, sublet clause, guest policy, and whether the term is fixed or month-to-month.
2. Put it in writing. A dated letter setting out the problem and what you want, even before any formal notice. It becomes the record of your reason.
3. Serve the right notice for your situation, with the state's period and a completed proof of service.
4. Talk to the landlord if you are co-tenants — they hold the only real remedy.
5. File if the notice expires unmet, and keep going through the court.
6. Sort out the money separately. Unpaid shares are a small-claims matter; do not let a rent dispute become a reason to skip a step above.

If you are the roommate being pushed out

• Do not leave because you were told to. Establish whether you are a co-tenant, a subtenant or an occupant — your rights differ enormously.
• Keep evidence of occupancy: rent transfers, texts about payments, mail at the address, utility accounts.
• If you are locked out, that is generally unlawful. Contact local police or a tenants' rights organisation the same day; many states provide expedited relief and damages.
• A notice is not a court order. Only a court can order possession.

Serve a notice that holds up

Our template drafts pay-or-quit, cure-or-quit, unconditional quit and termination notices with the parties, the property, the facts, the deadline and a proof-of-service block — with warnings covering short notice periods, just-cause requirements, and the rule that a notice never authorises removing anyone yourself.

→ Eviction Notice (Notice to Quit)

Related: the four types of eviction notice · pay or quit notice.