No landlord ever wants to evict a tenant, but unfortunately, it’s part of the job. If you rent out the property for long enough, you will eventually have to serve an eviction notice on a tenant. While you can legally serve a tenant with an eviction notice under Florida law, we do not recommend it. There are many issues that may arise if you try to handle serving paperwork to the tenant yourself, including:
Arguments
Evictions are emotional situations, even if the tenant knows they are in the wrong. If you show up to serve them with an eviction notice yourself, you’re inviting an argument with the tenant. They may try to argue their case or just make you feel bad, but either way, it’s a situation you can avoid by using a professional process server instead.
Claims of Injury or Harassment
Another common tactic, tenants who do not want to leave use is to claim that the landlord caused some type of bodily injury or property damage when they came to serve the eviction notice. They could also claim that the landlord is harassing them about the eviction. These claims may lead nowhere, but they still waste valuable time, money, and effort disproving them.
Claims of No Service
Another issue with serving an eviction notice to a tenant yourself is that they could just lie and say you never did… where’s your proof? If you don’t have some type of written or video evidence to prove that you served the tenant as you say you did, their lies could cause significant delays in the entire eviction case. The judge may believe their story and require that they be properly served (again), essentially restarting the entire process. If you’re using an attorney for the eviction, these delays add up to big bills. Using a private process server ensures that you’ll have proof of service when your court date arrives.
Process Servers for Your Orlando-area Evictions
If you need to evict a tenant in the Orlando, Kissimmee, or Lake Mary areas, Accurate Serve can help. Our servers are experienced in handling eviction notices with tact and discretion. Just give us a call at (407) 868-5992 or send us a work request online to get started today.
