Eviction Process Laws by State

A 50-state comparison for residential rentals, with every state verified against official statutes. Each figure in this table comes from a statute verification pass against official state sources — each row shows its own verified date, and each state links to the full rules with citations.

46 of the 50 states require a fixed pay-or-quit notice period — most commonly 3 days, used by 16 states — before a nonpayment eviction can be filed, while 4 set no fixed statutory period. 43 states statutorily bar self-help eviction, and 27 set an eviction-specific appeal deadline, most commonly 10 days.

Figures are the statutory periods exactly as each statute states them. States count days differently — several periods run in business or judicial days rather than calendar days; some statutes pair the figure with a separate cure deadline (both figures appear on the state page); some states also require rent to be a set number of days in arrears before notice may issue; and a few require no pre-suit notice at all. The linked state page carries the counting rules, every paired figure, and full citations.

No figure appears here unless it was verified against official state sources on the date shown — see how we verify.