How to Evict Someone in Alabama: Notices, Filing, and Writ

To evict someone in Alabama, you deliver a written termination notice for a legally recognized reason, wait out the cure period (seven business days for nonpayment or a lease violation, 30 days for a month-to-month tenancy), file an unlawful detainer lawsuit in the district court for the county where the property sits, serve the tenant, win a judgment, and then have a sheriff or constable execute a writ of possession. The process is set by the Alabama Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act in Title 35, Chapter 9A of the Alabama Code, and skipping any step usually means starting over.

Step 1: Pick the Right Notice for the Reason

Alabama recognizes a limited set of grounds for eviction, and each one has its own notice. Get this wrong and the court will throw the case out.

Nonpayment of Rent

Deliver a written notice stating the exact amount owed, including any late fees, and giving the tenant at least seven business days to pay. If the full amount comes in during that window, the lease stays in effect and you cannot proceed. If it doesn’t, the lease terminates on the date specified in the notice.¹

Lease Violations

For a material breach of the rental agreement or conduct affecting health and safety — unauthorized pets, extra occupants, significant property damage, dangerous behavior — deliver a written notice that describes the specific breach and gives the tenant at least seven business days to fix it. If the tenant cures, the lease continues. If not, it ends. The one exception: if the tenant intentionally lied about a material fact on their application or lease, no cure period is required and the lease terminates after the notice period.¹

When a tenant is behind on rent and also violating the lease in some other way, the seven-business-day nonpayment timeline controls.¹

Holdover After the Lease Ends

If the lease expired and the tenant stayed without your consent, you can sue for possession. If the holdover is willful and not in good faith, you can also recover damages equal to up to three months’ rent or your actual losses, whichever is greater, plus attorney’s fees.²

Ending a Month-to-Month Tenancy

Either side can end a month-to-month tenancy with at least 30 days’ written notice before the next rental due date. Week-to-week tenancies require at least seven days.² No reason is required; the notice itself is what ends the tenancy.

Step 2: Deliver the Notice So You Can Prove It

The method matters because the judge will ask how the tenant got the notice. Personal delivery is the cleanest. Certified mail builds a paper trail. If neither works, post the notice on the premises and send a copy by first-class mail. Keep a copy of the notice itself and whatever proof of delivery you have — a signed receipt, a certified mail green card, a photograph of the posted notice with a date. A notice you cannot prove you delivered is a notice the court will treat as never delivered.

Step 3: File the Unlawful Detainer

If the tenant hasn’t cured or moved out when the notice period expires, file an unlawful detainer action in the county where the property is located. District courts and circuit courts both have jurisdiction, but most residential cases go through district court.³

The complaint needs the names of the landlord and tenant, the property address, the reason for eviction, the date and method of your termination notice, and the amount of any unpaid rent. You can ask for a money judgment for back rent and damages in the same complaint rather than filing a second case. Forms are available at the court clerk’s office. Filing fees vary by county and typically run a few hundred dollars, paid when you file, with additional service fees for each named defendant.

Step 4: Serve the Tenant

After filing, the complaint and summons must be served under Alabama’s Rules of Civil Procedure. Personal delivery by a sheriff, constable, or process server is standard. If the tenant cannot be found personally, service can be made on any competent adult living on the premises.³

If no one can be found after reasonable effort, the server posts a copy on the door and mails a copy by first-class mail to the tenant at the property address or last known address. The mailing has to go out the same day as the posting or by the close of the next business day, and service is considered complete on the mailing date.³

Step 5: The Hearing and the Judgment

Once served, the tenant has seven calendar days to file a written answer with the court. In most Alabama counties no hearing is set unless the tenant files an answer, so a non-responsive tenant means you can ask the clerk for a default judgment and win without ever appearing before a judge.

If the tenant does answer, the court schedules a hearing. Alabama law doesn’t set a specific hearing deadline, so the date depends on the court’s calendar. Bring the signed lease, the termination notice with proof of delivery, a rent ledger or payment records, photographs of any damage, and anything else backing up your claim. A judgment in your favor grants possession and can include a money award for unpaid rent, damages, court costs, and attorney’s fees. A judgment for the tenant dismisses the case and the tenant stays.

Step 6: The Writ of Possession

Winning doesn’t put the tenant on the sidewalk that afternoon. There is an automatic seven-day stay after the judgment before a writ of possession can issue. Once that period passes, you apply for the writ and a sheriff or constable physically removes the tenant and their belongings. If the tenant comes back after being removed, they can be held in contempt and you can get a second writ.³

What You Cannot Do

Alabama bans self-help evictions outright. You cannot change the locks, remove the tenant’s belongings, or shut off utilities to force a tenant out. That includes cutting heat, water, electricity, or gas.⁴

The price for an illegal lockout or utility shutoff is heavy. The tenant can either return to the property or terminate the lease, and either way recover damages of up to three months’ rent or actual losses, whichever is greater, plus attorney’s fees. You also have to return the full security deposit and any prepaid rent.⁴ The court process is the only legal path.

Defenses That Can Sink Your Case

Landlords often lose cases they expected to win because a defense they didn’t plan for lands. Watch for these before you file.

Defective notice. If the termination notice didn’t describe the specific breach, didn’t give the full seven-business-day cure period, or wasn’t properly delivered, the court cannot proceed and you start over.

Tenant cured in time. If the tenant paid the overdue rent or fixed the violation within the notice period, you cannot proceed even if you already filed the complaint.¹

Retaliatory eviction. You cannot evict a tenant as payback for complaining to a government agency about housing code violations, reporting maintenance problems to you, or joining a tenant organization. If the court finds the eviction was retaliatory, the tenant wins and can recover damages. The defense has limits: you can still proceed if the tenant caused the code violation, is behind on rent, or committed other material lease violations.⁵

Discrimination. Evictions motivated by a tenant’s race, color, religion, sex, national origin, familial status, or disability violate the federal Fair Housing Act and will not be enforced.

How Long It Actually Takes

An uncontested eviction where the tenant never files an answer runs roughly three to four weeks end to end: seven business days for the notice period, a few days to file and serve the complaint, seven days for the tenant to answer (which they don’t), time for the clerk to enter a default judgment, and the seven-day stay before the writ issues. A contested case with a hearing, or one the tenant appeals, can stretch to several months. A defective notice or a skipped procedural step can double the timeline because you have to begin again.

Two Situations That Change the Rules

If your tenant is an active-duty service member or a service member’s dependent, the federal Servicemembers Civil Relief Act generally requires a court order before you can evict them from a primary residence, as long as the monthly rent is below a threshold that adjusts annually for inflation.⁶

If a tenant files for bankruptcy before you obtain a judgment, the bankruptcy court’s automatic stay can temporarily halt your case. You can ask the bankruptcy court to lift the stay, and judges usually do, but it adds delay. If you already have the eviction judgment when the bankruptcy is filed, the automatic stay generally does not block enforcement.

1
Alabama Legislature. Alabama Code 35-9A-421 – Noncompliance with Rental Agreement; Failure to Pay Rent
2
Alabama Legislature. Alabama Code 35-9A-441 – Periodic Tenancy
3
Alabama Legislature. Alabama Code 35-9A-461 – Landlord’s Action for Eviction, Rent, Monetary Damages, or Other Relief
4
Alabama Legislature. Alabama Code 35-9A-407 – Tenant’s Remedies for Landlord’s Unlawful Ouster, Exclusion, or Diminution of Service
5
Alabama Legislature. Alabama Code 35-9A-501 – Retaliatory Conduct Prohibited
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 50 USC 3951 – Evictions and Distress