What is the eviction process for an adult family member?

Question Details: My 24 year old daughter moved back home to try to fix her financial status before moving out again. Lately she has started fighting and using vulgar language to my 2 teenage children who are still in our home. She is constantly starting fights and during one of them chased my daughter to her bedroom; when my daughter shut her bedroom door my other daughter broke it down. My teenage son has mental health issues and was just admitted to a hospital for a week for suicide ideation. For the health and safety of my family, I need to have her move out but don't know how to begin.

Asked on 7/19/2019 under: Real Estate Wisconsin

More Legal Topics ▼All States ▼

SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney Answered 4 months ago | Contributor

You are not "evicting" her--you are "ejecting" here. Eviction is the process of removing a rent-paying tenant who has failed to pay rent, violated her lease, disturbed other tenants, damaged the property, or whose lease is expired. Ejectment--that is the traditional term for it; it is possible that your state has a different term--is the process of removing a "guest" or "invitee": someone without any legal right to occupancy (e.g. not an owner or tenant with a lease) but who was voluntarily allowed to remain there by the owner. No matter the family relationship or how long they have been there, if they are not an owner and not a tenant, they are a guest. A guest may be told to leave at time; if they don't, a legal action for ejectment can be brought.
Removing the guest starts with providing them written notice that they must leave by a certain reasonable date (e.g. in a month or 30 days). If they don't go, then the ejectment action is filed to get a court order or "writ" to remove them.
You are strongly advised to retain an attorney to help you for two reasons. 1) Ejectment law if highly "procedural" or "technical": minor mistakes or errors can force you to start over. 2) the lawyer can help de-escalate and de-personalize matters, by being a bufffer between you and your daughter.

Rate This Answer:

(1 Rating)

IMPORTANT NOTICE: The Answer(s) provided above are for general information only. The attorney providing the answer was not serving as the attorney for the person submitting the question or in any attorney-client relationship with such person. Laws may vary from state to state, and sometimes change. Tiny variations in the facts, or a fact not set forth in a question, often can change a legal outcome or an attorney's conclusion. Although AttorneyPages.com has verified the attorney was admitted to practice law in at least one jurisdiction, he or she may not be authorized to practice law in the jurisdiction referred to in the question, nor is he or she necessarily experienced in the area of the law involved. Unlike the information in the Answer(s) above, upon which you should NOT rely, for personal advice you can rely upon we suggest you go to AttorneyPages.com and retain an attorney to represent you.