Remember those days when you were in school and they threatened you with that "permanent record" stuff? Like you cared about chewing gum in class?

It may not have meant much in the second grade, but now that you're all grown up, there is such a thing as a permanent record. It may not be technically permanent, but it'll hang around long enough to give you grief if there's anything bad on it.

When you don't pay your rent as agreed, the only tool in our tool-belt is to perform an eviction. Here's how it works:

Elvis is supposed to pay his rent on the first, but by the fifth of the month he still hadn't brought it in. We called him, but hadn't received a reply by the next day. So, we went down to the court house and filed a NOTICE OF EVICTION FOR NON-PAYMENT OF RENT. The Sheriff's office personally delivered it and handed it to Elvis. If he hadn't been home, they would have taped it to his door and mailed him a copy.

This isn't an eviction. It's a notice of eviction. It means, "if you do not pay the rent or vacate the premises within five judicial days, we will evict you."

Although this is not an eviction, it is on file at the court house, and any time you rent a palce in the future, it will come back to haunt you. It's still very, very bad.

Elvis decided that buying beer was more important than rent, and said he'd be in with some money in two days. He didn't bother to show up. And besides, he couldn't imagine us actually throwing him out in the cold, cold street.

Wrong, Elvis.

By noon of the fifth day we've gone to the court house again, and this time we've filed an AFFADAVIT OF COMPLAINT FOR EVICTION. This is the eviction. This means we are bringing the Sheriff to Elvis's home the next day, evicting him, and changing the locks. Elvis will have about ten minutes to grab some socks, his toothbrush, and his jar of peanut butter, and hit the road.

And it all goes on Elvis's permanent record down there at the court house..

Wrapping up: notices of evictions don't look good on your record. They make it very difficult to rent a place in the future, unless you're shooting for that leaky single-wide on the edge of town with the broken windows and seven pit-bulls next door. Don't be like Elvis- keep in contact with your landlord so they know what's going on, and if you say you're going to pay $500 on June 7th, don't walk in on June 11th with only $300. It may be too little, too late.