How much notice does a landlord have to give before filing an eviction for unpaid rent in North Dakota?

3 days. The notice period is not the whole wait. The ground itself does not exist until rent has gone unpaid for three days after it was due, so the real statutory floor from the rent due date to the earliest lawful filing is six days (47-32-01(4); 47-32-02).

How much notice is required to evict for a lease violation in North Dakota?

3 days. One number, one document. North Dakota has no cure-versus-quit split: the same written notice of intention to evict that governs unpaid rent applies to a violation of a material term of a written lease, and there is no separate, longer termination date (47-32-01(8); 47-32-02).

How long does an eviction take in North Dakota?

About 10 to 15 days from the rent due date to lockout on an uncontested nonpayment case, and roughly 5 to 6 weeks to end a month-to-month tenancy without cause.

How long does a tenant have to appeal an eviction judgment in North Dakota?

No eviction-specific deadline — the standard civil appeal window applies (see notes).

Can a landlord change the locks or shut off utilities instead of going to court in North Dakota?

No statute squarely on point — the notes explain what this state's law does and does not address. North Dakota never adopted the URLTA self-help prohibition, and no statute in the Century Code says a landlord may not lock a tenant out or cut off utilities. What exists are remedies rather than a prohibition, and they reach force, stealth and fraud rather than a quiet lockout.

What is the eviction process and timeline in North Dakota?

Verified August 5, 2026 All North Dakota topics →

To evict a residential tenant in North Dakota you serve a three-day written notice of intention to evict under N.D.C.C. 47-32-02, then bring an action of eviction in the district court for the county where the property is located; the summons must set the tenant's appearance not fewer than three and not more than fifteen days after the summons is issued.

Cited to N.D.C.C. 47-32-01 opening clause (proper district court) and 50 more North Dakota statutes · Verified August 5, 2026

Two North Dakota quirks change the arithmetic. First, for unpaid rent the three-day notice cannot do its work until the ground exists, and 47-32-01(4) says the ground is that the lessee "fails to pay rent for three days after the rent is due" - so the real floor from the rent due date to a lawful filing is six days, not three. Second, the three-day notice is a notice of intention to evict, not a notice terminating the tenancy: for unpaid rent or a material breach of a written lease it is the only document you need, but to end a month-to-month tenancy without cause you first serve one calendar month's written notice under 47-16-15(2), wait for the tenancy to end and the tenant to hold over, and only then serve the three-day notice - two documents on two clocks that run in sequence. There is one exception to notice altogether: 47-32-02 requires the notice only for grounds 4, 5, 6 and 8, so a tenant who unreasonably disturbs other tenants' peaceful enjoyment (ground 7) can be sued with no advance notice at all, and 47-32-04 denies that tenant the hardship stay. Days are calendar days, counted by excluding the first day and including the last, with the last day rolled forward if it falls on a Saturday, a Sunday or a state holiday. If the landlord wins, 47-32-04 requires judgment for immediate restitution of the premises, and the court may stay the special execution only up to five days and only for substantial hardship. A judicial referee, not a judge, may hear and decide the case. The three-day notice does not let a landlord change the locks or shut off utilities - only a sheriff acting on a special execution can put a tenant out.

North Dakota eviction process at a glance

Nonpayment notice (pay-or-quit)	3 days
Nonpayment notice rules (day counting, cure rights, service)	The notice period is not the whole wait. The ground itself does not exist until rent has gone unpaid for three days after it was due, so the real statutory floor from the rent due date to the earliest lawful filing is six days (47-32-01(4); 47-32-02). N.D.C.C. 47-32-02 requires that "three days' written notice of intention to evict must be given to the lessee, subtenant, or party in possession, before proceedings can be instituted" in all cases arising under subsections 4, 5, 6, and 8 of 47-32-01. Nonpayment is the second limb of subsection 4. ARREARS PRECONDITION, ADDITIVE: the ground itself does not exist until the lessee "fails to pay rent for three days after the rent is due" (47-32-01(4)), so the real statutory floor from the rent due date to the earliest lawful filing is 3 + 3 = 6 days, not 3. CALENDAR DAYS. N.D.C.C. 1-02-15 computes any period "by excluding the first day and including the last, unless the last is a holiday, and then it also is excluded"; N.D.C.C. 1-03-01(1) makes "[e]very Sunday" a holiday, 1-03-04 makes every other unlisted day (including Saturday) a business day, and 1-03-05 lets an act due on "a Saturday or a holiday" be performed on the next business day. N.D.R.Civ.P. 6(a)(1) reaches the same result for periods in a statute that does not itself specify a method: exclude the trigger day, count intermediate Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays, but roll the last day forward if it lands on one. CURE: paying the full amount demanded within the 3 days defeats the ground; there is no statutory cure period after the notice expires and no statutory grace period beyond the 3-day arrears window - the lease may grant more. CONTENT: the statute prescribes no content; it requires only a written notice of intention to evict. SERVICE (47-32-02): "The notice may be served and returned as a summons is served and returned or, if the party cannot be found, then by the sheriff of the county or a process server posting the notice conspicuously upon the premises." No statutory mailing requirement attaches to the notice. RELATED: N.D.C.C. 47-16-20.1 forbids a landlord from charging any fee to accept cash, a check, or a money order for rent, so such a fee cannot be added to the sum demanded. N.D.C.C. 47-32-05(1) lets a tenant evicted for nonpayment move to seal the court record seven years after the eviction order is satisfied.
Lease-violation notice period	3 days
Lease-violation notice rules (cure vs. termination)	One number, one document. North Dakota has no cure-versus-quit split: the same written notice of intention to evict that governs unpaid rent applies to a violation of a material term of a written lease, and there is no separate, longer termination date (47-32-01(8); 47-32-02). SINGLE-NUMBER STATUTE - there is no two-number sentence. N.D.C.C. 47-32-01(8) makes it a freestanding ground that "[t]he lessee violates a material term of the written lease agreement between the lessor and lessee," and 47-32-02 attaches to subsection 8 the same "three days' written notice of intention to evict" that governs nonpayment. The 3-day figure shown here is that period, and no statutory remedy or cure window runs inside it. The Century Code prescribes no cure right for a lease violation, no repeat-violation escalation, and no definition of materiality - the court decides materiality case by case. The notice is styled a notice of intention to evict rather than a notice of termination: it does not by its own force end the tenancy, and 47-32-01(8) does not require the lease to be terminated first, so for this ground one document runs on one clock. Ground 8 reaches only WRITTEN leases by its terms; a material breach of an oral tenancy has to be routed through the holdover limb of 47-32-01(4), which does require a prior termination (see notes). Note the separate, softer termination right in N.D.C.C. 47-16-16: the lessor "may terminate the lease and reclaim such property before the end of the term agreed upon" when the lessee uses the property contrary to the agreement or fails to make required repairs "within a reasonable time after a request is made" - that section fixes no day count and is not the eviction notice.
Unconditional-quit grounds	N.D.C.C. 47-32-02 requires the three-day notice of intention to evict only "[i]n all cases arising under subsections 4, 5, 6, and 8 of section 47-32-01." Subsection 7 is deliberately omitted, so NO pre-filing notice of any kind is statutorily required where "[a] lessee or a person on the premises with the lessee's consent acts in a manner that unreasonably disturbs other tenants' peaceful enjoyment of the premises" - the landlord may file immediately. The omission is corroborated inside the chapter: 47-32-04 withholds the discretionary hardship stay of execution "in cases in which the eviction judgment is based in whole or in part on a disturbance of the peace." Subsections 1-3 (entry by force, intimidation, fraud or stealth; turning out the possessor by force or menace; holding by force or threats of violence) likewise need no notice, but they are forcible-entry-and-detainer grounds that in practice run against an intruder or an ousting landlord rather than a paying tenant. Separately, N.D.C.C. 47-16-07.6(2) provides that where an individual pleads guilty to or is convicted of knowingly making a false service-animal disability claim or supplying fraudulent supporting documentation, "a lessor may evict a lessee" and may recover a damage fee up to $1,000. North Dakota has no separate illegal-activity or drug-house eviction ground and no statutory zero-tolerance/criminal-activity notice.
Court and action	Exclusive original jurisdiction is in the DISTRICT COURT - there is no concurrent small-claims, magistrate or municipal track. N.D.C.C. 47-32-01 opens: "An action of eviction to recover the possession of real estate is maintainable in the proper district court when ..."; the former justice-court eviction chapter, N.D.C.C. ch. 33-06, is repealed. The statutory name is an "action of eviction" (chapter heading: Eviction); the North Dakota court system also calls it forcible detainer, and the complaint is captioned a complaint for restitution of real property. Venue is the county where the property sits (N.D.C.C. 28-04-01(1): an action "[f]or the recovery of real property, or of an estate or interest therein" must be brought in the county where the subject matter is situated). The N.D. Rules of Civil Procedure apply subject to N.D.R.Civ.P. 81(a) - "[s]pecial statutory proceedings, whether or not listed in Table A, are excluded from these rules to the extent they are inconsistent or in conflict" - so ch. 47-32's own timing controls over conflicting rule provisions. A CASE MAY BE DECIDED BY A JUDICIAL REFEREE RATHER THAN A JUDGE: N.D. Sup. Ct. Admin. R. 13, sec. 5(a)(11) lists "N.D.C.C. 47-32" among the delegable classes of proceedings; the referee's findings and order "have the effect of the findings and order of the district court until superseded by a written order of a district court judge" (sec. 10(a)), and either party may compel de novo review by a district judge by written request filed within seven days after service of the notice of the right of review (sec. 11(a)). The N.D. Supreme Court has described the proceeding as "an inexpensive, expeditious, and simple means to determine possession" limited to the right to possession, with counterclaims barred except as a setoff (Spirit Prop. Mgmt. v. Vondell, 2017 ND 158, para. 4, quoting Cheetah Props. 1, LLC v. Panther Pressure Testers, Inc., 2016 ND 102, para. 20; applied in Hegenes Apartment Mgmt. v. Borlay, 2023 ND 123, para. 8).
Filing to hearing	3 to 15 days, measured from ISSUANCE OF THE SUMMONS - not from filing and not from service. N.D.C.C. 47-32-02, first sentence: "In any action for eviction the time specified in the summons for the appearance of the defendant may not be fewer than three nor more than fifteen days from the date on which the summons is issued." The anchor matters because North Dakota does not commence civil actions by filing: N.D.R.Civ.P. 3 provides that "[a] civil action is commenced by the service of a summons," and its explanatory note says this "is unlike Fed.R.Civ.P. 3, which requires the filing of a complaint with the court to commence an action." So the summons, bearing the appearance date, is the operative instrument, and any figure described as running from filing is anchored to the wrong event. Two service deadlines then bound the same window from the other end (47-32-02, final two sentences): "Service by delivery of a copy of the summons to the defendant in person within the county must be made at least three days before the time fixed for the appearance of the defendant. Service elsewhere or personal service in any other mode must be made at least seven days before the time fixed for the appearance of the defendant." A 3-day appearance date is therefore only achievable with in-county personal service; posting or out-of-county service forces at least 7 days. Substituted service by posting on the door of the residential unit requires that the defendant cannot be found in the county, at least one service attempt "between the hours of six p.m. and ten p.m.," a plaintiff's affidavit, and mailing to the last-known address. There is no statutory answer deadline - the defendant appears and defends at the hearing. Applied in Cache Private Capital Diversified Fund v. Braddock, 2025 ND 168, paras. 9-11.
Writ of possession and lockout	The possession writ is issued as a SPECIAL EXECUTION (N.D.C.C. 47-32-04 and 47-16-30.1 both use that term); the district courts and the North Dakota court system's own forms also call it a Writ of Eviction, Writ of Execution for Possession or Writ of Restitution. Earliest issuance is IMMEDIATE on judgment: N.D.C.C. 47-32-04 provides that "[i]f the court finds for the plaintiff in the action, the court shall enter judgment that the plaintiff have immediate restitution of the premises." The only statutory brake is a discretionary hardship stay: "Upon a showing by the defendant that immediate restitution of the premises would work a substantial hardship on the defendant or the defendant's family, except in cases in which the eviction judgment is based in whole or in part on a disturbance of the peace, the court may stay the special execution for a reasonable period, not to exceed five days." The sheriff executes: N.D.C.C. 28-21-03 recognises an execution "for the delivery of the possession of property," 28-21-06 requires every execution to be "directed and delivered to a sheriff" and to "particularly describe the property to be delivered," and 28-21-06(2) directs the sheriff to "deliver the property to the party entitled to the property." No statute prescribes a notice period before the sheriff executes, and none fixes an outer deadline for execution. Tenant property left behind: under N.D.C.C. 47-16-30.1, once "a judgment of eviction has been obtained and the special execution has been served," the lessor removing abandoned property has a lien on it for reasonable storage and moving expenses; property worth $2,500 or less may be disposed of without legal process 28 or more days after the lessor has actual notice, or reasonable appearance, that the lessee has vacated.
Appeal window	No eviction-specific deadline — the standard civil appeal window applies (see notes)
Best-case uncontested timeline (derived from statutory minimums — contested cases run longer)	About 10 to 15 days from the rent due date to lockout on an uncontested nonpayment case, and roughly 5 to 6 weeks to end a month-to-month tenancy without cause. These figures are derived by adding the statutory minimums cited here; a promise of nothing, and contested cases run materially longer. NONPAYMENT, best case: 3 days for the arrears precondition to mature (47-32-01(4), "fails to pay rent for three days after the rent is due") + 3 days for the notice of intention to evict to run (47-32-02) + 3 days minimum from issuance of the summons to the appearance date, achievable only with in-county personal service completed at least 3 days before that date (47-32-02) = about 9 to 10 days from the rent due date to the hearing, plus 0 to 5 days if the court grants a hardship stay of the special execution (47-32-04) = roughly 10 to 15 days to lockout. If the summons has to be posted or served outside the county, the 7-day pre-appearance service floor replaces the 3-day one and the hearing moves to about day 13 to 14. LEASE VIOLATION under subsection 8: no arrears precondition, so 3 days' notice + 3 days from issuance of the summons to the appearance date = about 6 to 7 days to hearing, 6 to 12 days to lockout. DISTURBANCE OF OTHER TENANTS' PEACEFUL ENJOYMENT under subsection 7: no pre-filing notice at all and no hardship stay available, so about 3 to 4 days from issuance of the summons to lockout - the fastest track in the chapter. (Issuance, not filing, is the statutory anchor for the appearance window; in practice the landlord files first and the two dates usually coincide.) NO-CAUSE END OF A MONTH-TO-MONTH TENANCY: one calendar month's written notice expiring at the end of a rental month (47-16-15(2)), then the tenant must actually hold over, then the separate 3-day notice of intention to evict, then 3 or more days to the appearance = roughly 5 to 6 weeks. No mediation, diversion or rent-escrow step is required anywhere in the chapter.
Self-help eviction (lockout, utility shutoff) barred	No statute squarely on point — the notes explain what this state's law does and does not address
Self-help scope and tenant remedies	North Dakota never adopted the URLTA self-help prohibition, and no statute in the Century Code says a landlord may not lock a tenant out or cut off utilities. What exists are remedies rather than a prohibition, and they reach force, stealth and fraud rather than a quiet lockout. (1) N.D.C.C. 32-03-29: "For forcibly ejecting or excluding a person from the possession of real property, the measure of damages is three times such a sum as would compensate for the detriment caused to the person by the act complained of" - treble damages, but the adverb "forcibly" governs both "ejecting" and "excluding." (2) The ousted tenant gets the eviction action itself, which is broader than force: N.D.C.C. 47-32-01(1) reaches a party who "by force, intimidation, fraud, or stealth, has entered upon the prior actual possession of real property of another and detains the same," and 47-32-01(2) a party who "after peaceably entering upon real property, turns out by force, threats, or menacing conduct the party in possession." A landlord who changes the locks while the tenant is out is exposed under the "stealth" limb. (3) N.D.C.C. 32-03-21 measures damages for wrongful occupation of realty. (4) N.D.C.C. 47-16-08 binds the lessor "to secure to the lessee the quiet possession of such property during the term of the lease," a covenant sounding in contract. (5) Entry short of dispossession is regulated: N.D.C.C. 47-16-07.3 permits entry at any time in an emergency, on reasonable belief of abandonment, or on reasonable belief the tenant is in substantial violation of the lease, and otherwise only during reasonable hours with the tenant's consent, adding that "[a] landlord shall not abuse the right of access or use it to harass or intimidate the tenant." NOTHING addresses termination of utility service by a landlord. Nothing bars a peaceable lockout in terms. And the mobile-home-park scheme supplies the only sentence in the Code that tells a tenant the notice does not authorise removal: N.D.C.C. 47-10-28(10) requires a notice of intent to evict from a mobile home park to carry boldfaced language stating "You do not have to vacate immediately. You have the right to remain until a court issues an eviction order" - a residential notice outside a park need not say it.

Cite this page: "Landlord Atlas, North Dakota Eviction Process Laws (verified August 5, 2026), landlordatlas.com/laws/eviction-process/north-dakota/" — free to cite and quote with a link (how these records are verified). Every figure above is cited to the North Dakota statute in the citations section below.

Notes and caveats

Mobile-home parks run on a separate, much slower scheme — Out of scope on this page and worth disclaiming: 47-10-28(3) gives a park tenant three months to remedy noncompliance with modified park rules before an eviction action may be initiated (extendable if a mover certifies the home cannot be relocated in time), and 47-10-28(7) requires ninety days' notice of a rent increase in a month-to-month park tenancy. None of those figures apply to an ordinary residential tenancy.
Park tenants get warnings and defenses ordinary tenants do not — 47-10-28(10) requires a park's notice of intent to evict to carry boldfaced language telling the tenant 'You do not have to vacate immediately. You have the right to remain until a court issues an eviction order.' 47-32-01.1, created in 2025, also gives a park tenant an affirmative defense that the park owner violated 47-10-28, in which case 'the court may not order an eviction.'
Other scope edges — Farm and oil-and-gas leasing sit in the same chapter 47-16 but are separate schemes. There is no public-housing-specific and no hotel/motel eviction chapter.
The three-day notice is not a cure window and does not end the tenancy — North Dakota's instrument is a 'notice of intention to evict': a single statutory pre-filing period, not a cure window and not a filing-day offset. By its own terms it does not terminate the tenancy, and 47-32-01(8) does not require the lease to be terminated before suit. The state court form renders the period as 'within Three (3) days of service of this Notice, you must move out and deliver possession.'
Nonpayment and written-lease breach: one document, one clock — For unpaid rent (47-32-01(4), second limb) and for violation of a material term of a written lease (47-32-01(8)), the three-day notice of intention to evict is the only document needed. Neither ground is conditioned on the tenancy having been terminated first.
Unpaid rent: the real floor is six days, not three — The ground does not exist until the lessee 'fails to pay rent for three days after the rent is due' (47-32-01(4)), and only then does 47-32-02's three-day notice do its work. The two periods are additive: three plus three from the rent due date to the earliest lawful filing.
Open question: may the arrears clock and the notice clock overlap? — 47-32-02 does not say the arrears must have matured before the notice issues, only that the notice must precede institution of proceedings — so a landlord serving on the day rent is late might argue both periods expire together, for a four-day floor. This page takes the additive reading, because the ground does not exist until day three and a notice of intention to evict served before any ground exists is the kind of defect that loses a summary proceeding.
No-cause and oral-tenancy cases take two notices, in sequence — The holdover limb of 47-32-01(4) is the only route to a no-cause eviction and the only route for a breach of an ORAL tenancy, and it requires the tenancy to have ended first: one calendar month's written notice under 47-16-15(2) (most residential holdovers convert to month-to-month under 47-16-06, as do leases whose automatic-renewal clause was not noticed thirty days out under 47-16-06.1), then the tenant must actually hold over, and only then does the three-day notice become available. A landlord who serves only the three-day notice on a month-to-month tenant loses.
Open question: can the three-day notice run inside the final month? — No statutory sentence and no North Dakota appellate decision resolves whether the three-day notice may be served during the final days of the one-month termination period so the clocks overlap. 47-32-02 requires only that notice be given 'before proceedings can be instituted,' which is textual room for overlap — but the notice demands possession the tenant is still lawfully entitled to. This page states the conservative sequential reading.
Disturbing other tenants takes no pre-filing notice at all — 47-32-02 requires the three-day notice only for grounds 4, 5, 6 and 8, and ground 7 — conduct that unreasonably disturbs other tenants' peaceful enjoyment — is absent from that list; the omission looks deliberate, since 47-32-04 separately withholds the hardship stay from judgments resting on 'a disturbance of the peace.' Note that the court system's own Notice of Intention to Evict (Form 1b) carries a checkbox for 'Unreasonable peace disturbances,' so official practice serves a notice anyway. The statute is what this page shows; a prudent landlord serves one.
Calendar days, with one asymmetry worth knowing — Everything in ch. 47-32 runs in calendar days, and the two computation regimes converge even though they look like they might not: 1-02-15 excludes the first day and includes the last 'unless the last is a holiday,' 1-03-01(1) makes every Sunday a holiday while 1-03-04 makes Saturday a business day, and 1-03-05 lets an act due on a Saturday or a holiday be done on the next business day — matching N.D.R.Civ.P. 6(a)(1)(C), which applies of its own force to any statute that does not specify a method, and which the court system's own eviction instructions apply to the three-day notice. The asymmetry: Saturday counts as an intermediate day but cannot be the last day. No figure on this page is in business or judicial days.
The hearing window runs from issuance of the summons — N.D.R.Civ.P. 3 commences a civil action by service of a summons, not by filing, so 47-32-02's 3-to-15-day appearance window cannot be described as running from filing — any figure anchored to filing is anchored to the wrong event (Cache Private Capital Diversified Fund v. Braddock, 2025 ND 168, paras. 9-11). In practice the state's instructions have the landlord file the papers and pay the $160 fee first, obtain a hearing date from the clerk, and only then date, sign and serve the summons, so filing and issuance are usually the same day. The 3-day floor is reachable only with in-county personal service; posting or out-of-county service triggers the 7-day pre-appearance floor.
Posting the notice and posting the summons follow different rules — The 'between the hours of six p.m. and ten p.m.' attempt requirement, the plaintiff's affidavit and the mailing all sit in the statute's sentence about posting the SUMMONS on the door. The sentence about serving the NOTICE of intention to evict permits posting 'conspicuously upon the premises' simply 'if the party cannot be found,' with no stated attempt, affidavit or mailing condition — yet the state's eviction instructions tell landlords the six-to-ten attempt is required before posting the notice too. This page follows the statutory text and flags the gap; district courts may well require the stricter practice.
Rule 62(a)'s 30-day automatic stay does not apply to evictions — N.D.R.Civ.P. 62(a) automatically stays execution on a judgment for 30 days after filing notice of entry 'unless the court orders otherwise,' which read literally would swallow 47-32-04's 'immediate restitution' and its five-day cap on any hardship stay. N.D.R.Civ.P. 81(a) resolves it — special statutory proceedings are excluded from the rules to the extent they conflict — and Spirit Prop. Mgmt. v. Vondell, 2017 ND 158, para. 4 (quoted in Hegenes Apartment Mgmt. v. Borlay, 2023 ND 123, para. 8) describes the eviction judgment as granting immediate restitution with delay available only 'for a reasonable period not exceeding five days.' In Braddock the district court ordered the defendant out no later than five days after entry of judgment — but expect a tenant to raise Rule 62(a) anyway.
No eviction-specific appeal deadline — 60 days, from service of notice — 28-27-04 ('Time for appeal') reads in full 'Superseded by N.D.R.App.P., Rule 4,' so the only window is the general civil rule: notice of appeal to the Supreme Court within 60 days from service of notice of entry of the judgment or order being appealed. Note it runs from service of notice of entry, not from entry.
The judicial-referee track carries its own seven-day clock — Where a judicial referee decided the case under N.D. Sup. Ct. Admin. R. 13, a party must file a written request for de novo district-court review 'within seven days after service of the notice' of the right of review (sec. 11(a)), with responses due within 14 days, before any 60-day Supreme Court clock is in play. That is why the appeal-window answer is left empty: showing either 60 or 7 would misstate the other track.
Self-help: no prohibition, only remedies — and only against force — North Dakota never adopted the URLTA self-help provision. 32-03-29 trebles damages 'for forcibly ejecting or excluding' a person from possession, and 47-32-01(1)-(3) give the ousted party an eviction action reaching entry 'by force, intimidation, fraud, or stealth' — broad enough to catch a lock change made while the tenant is out, but there is still no sentence anywhere saying a landlord may not do it.
Utility shutoffs are genuinely unanswered — Nothing in the Century Code addresses a landlord's termination of utility service, and nothing in chs. 47-10, 47-16 or 47-32 speaks to a peaceable lockout or a shutoff — the mobile-home-park chapter carries no self-help provision either. The answer is empty in both directions: no statute permits self-help and none prohibits it. No North Dakota decision squarely holds the statutory eviction remedy exclusive, though case law is not exhaustively surveyed here, so a case-law-based prohibition cannot be ruled out.
Local ordinances: rent control preempted, just-cause not addressed — 47-16-02.1 forbids any political subdivision from enacting, maintaining or enforcing an ordinance or resolution 'that would have the effect of controlling the amount of rent charged for leasing private residential or commercial property.' No statute was found expressly preempting local just-cause or longer-notice ordinances, and there is no official state registry of local landlord-tenant ordinances, so no list of localities is published here.
No general retaliatory-eviction statute — The only anti-retaliation clause in the leasing chapter, 47-16-17.1(10), protects a tenant who exercised the domestic-violence lease-termination right — and no one else.
No residential late-fee cap — the 10%/$5 figures are park-only — There is no statutory late-fee cap for ordinary residential tenancies. The 10 percent monthly / $5 daily cap in 47-10-28(11) belongs to the mobile-home-park scheme.
Habitability comes with no withholding or repair-and-deduct clock — 47-16-13.1 imposes habitability duties and allows 'a reasonable time' to remedy, but supplies no rent-withholding or repair-and-deduct notice period beyond the older 47-16-13.
Counterclaims are barred, and rent liability survives the eviction — 47-32-04 bars joining other claims and bars counterclaims except as a setoff against the landlord's own damages claim, and 47-16-13.7 keeps an evicted lessee liable for rent for the remainder of the term, subject to mitigation.
The state's self-help forms are not official court forms — The North Dakota Legal Self Help Center materials are official state-court publications, but they state on their face that the forms 'aren't official court forms.' They are cited here for procedure and corroboration only, and no figure shown here rests on them.
Biennial legislature: there is no 2026 regular session — The 69th Legislative Assembly sat in regular session in 2025 and in special session 21-23 January 2026; the next regular session is the 70th, in 2027. The 2025 session touched only 47-32-01.1 and 47-10-28 (ch. 238) and 47-32-05 (ch. 427) in the eviction chapter, plus 47-16-17.1 and 47-16-20.1 in the leasing chapter — none of the sections this page's answers rest on. The January 2026 special session amended no Title 47 section at all.
Currency of the eviction figures — The official North Dakota Century Code on ndlegis.gov states that the text published there is the official version, and carries an update notice that all statutory changes approved by the 69th Legislative Assembly are reflected (2026-07-25). Its PDFs carry every headline figure on this page in identical terms, and no enacted-but-not-yet-effective amendment to any cited section exists. As of 2026-08-05 the official chapter PDF and the FindLaw mirror state the summons-timing rule identically, and the issuance-not-filing anchor is corroborated by Cache Private Capital Diversified Fund v. Braddock, 2025 ND 168, para. 9; the timeline arithmetic on this page runs from issuance of the summons throughout.

Common questions: North Dakota eviction process

Each answer is the verified value from the table above, restated as a direct answer. Free to quote with a link to this page.

How much notice does a landlord have to give before filing an eviction for unpaid rent in North Dakota?: 3 days. The notice period is not the whole wait. The ground itself does not exist until rent has gone unpaid for three days after it was due, so the real statutory floor from the rent due date to the earliest lawful filing is six days (47-32-01(4); 47-32-02).
How much notice is required to evict for a lease violation in North Dakota?: 3 days. One number, one document. North Dakota has no cure-versus-quit split: the same written notice of intention to evict that governs unpaid rent applies to a violation of a material term of a written lease, and there is no separate, longer termination date (47-32-01(8); 47-32-02).
How long does an eviction take in North Dakota?: About 10 to 15 days from the rent due date to lockout on an uncontested nonpayment case, and roughly 5 to 6 weeks to end a month-to-month tenancy without cause.
How long does a tenant have to appeal an eviction judgment in North Dakota?: No eviction-specific deadline — the standard civil appeal window applies (see notes).
Can a landlord change the locks or shut off utilities instead of going to court in North Dakota?: No statute squarely on point — the notes explain what this state's law does and does not address. North Dakota never adopted the URLTA self-help prohibition, and no statute in the Century Code says a landlord may not lock a tenant out or cut off utilities. What exists are remedies rather than a prohibition, and they reach force, stealth and fraud rather than a quiet lockout.

Statute citations

N.D.C.C. 47-32-01 opening clause (proper district court) (verified 2026) Official source
N.D.C.C. 47-32-01 subsections 1-3 (forcible entry and detainer) (verified 2026) Official source
N.D.C.C. 47-32-01 subsection 4 (holdover; rent unpaid three days after due) (verified 2026) Official source
N.D.C.C. 47-32-01 subsection 7 (disturbance of other tenants' peaceful enjoyment) (verified 2026) Official source
N.D.C.C. 47-32-01 subsection 8 (material term of written lease) (verified 2026) Official source
N.D.C.C. 47-32-01.1 (verified 2026) Official source
N.D.C.C. 47-32-02 first sentence (appearance not fewer than three nor more than fifteen days from issuance of summons) (verified 2026) Official source
N.D.C.C. 47-32-02 second sentence (substituted service by posting on the door; 6-10 p.m. attempt; affidavit; mailing) (verified 2026) Official source
N.D.C.C. 47-32-02 third sentence (three days' written notice of intention to evict; subsections 4, 5, 6, 8) (verified 2026) Official source
N.D.C.C. 47-32-02 fourth sentence (service of the notice; posting conspicuously upon the premises) (verified 2026) Official source
N.D.C.C. 47-32-02 final two sentences (three days in-county personal service; seven days otherwise) (verified 2026) Official source
N.D.C.C. 47-32-03 (verified 2026) Official source
N.D.C.C. 47-32-04 immediate restitution; joinder and counterclaim limits; hardship stay not to exceed five days; disturbance-of-the-peace exception (verified 2026) Official source
N.D.C.C. 47-32-05 subsections 1-2 (sealing of eviction records) (verified 2026) Official source
N.D.C.C. 47-16-02.1 (verified 2026) Official source
N.D.C.C. 47-16-06 residential holdover converts to month-to-month (verified 2026) Official source
N.D.C.C. 47-16-06.1 thirty days' notice to enforce an automatic renewal clause (verified 2026) Official source
N.D.C.C. 47-16-07 thirty days' written notice to change month-to-month terms (verified 2026) Official source
N.D.C.C. 47-16-07.3 (verified 2026) Official source
N.D.C.C. 47-16-07.6 subsection 2 (verified 2026) Official source
N.D.C.C. 47-16-08 (verified 2026) Official source
N.D.C.C. 47-16-13.1 landlord habitability duties; subsection 2 reasonable time to remedy (verified 2026) Official source
N.D.C.C. 47-16-13.4 (verified 2026) Official source
N.D.C.C. 47-16-13.7 (verified 2026) Official source
N.D.C.C. 47-16-14 (verified 2026) Official source
N.D.C.C. 47-16-15 subsection 2 (one calendar month's written notice, month-to-month) (verified 2026) Official source
N.D.C.C. 47-16-15 subsections 3-5 (twenty-five days after a term change; initialling requirement; conversion to month-to-month) (verified 2026) Official source
N.D.C.C. 47-16-16 (verified 2026) Official source
N.D.C.C. 47-16-17.1 subsections 2, 7 and 10 (domestic-violence termination; narrow anti-retaliation clause) (verified 2026) Official source
N.D.C.C. 47-16-20.1 (verified 2026) Official source
N.D.C.C. 47-16-30.1 special execution served; lien for storage and moving; twenty-eight days (verified 2026) Official source
N.D.C.C. 47-10-28 subsections 3, 7 and 10 (mobile home park scheme; boldfaced right-to-remain language) (verified 2026) Official source
N.D.C.C. 1-02-15 (verified 2026) Official source
N.D.C.C. 1-03-01 subsection 1 (every Sunday) (verified 2026) Official source
N.D.C.C. 1-03-04 (verified 2026) Official source
N.D.C.C. 1-03-05 (verified 2026) Official source
N.D.C.C. 28-04-01 subsection 1 (verified 2026) Official source
N.D.C.C. 28-21-03 (verified 2026) Official source
N.D.C.C. 28-21-06 issuance and contents; subsection 2 (sheriff delivers possession) (verified 2026) Official source
N.D.C.C. 28-27-01 (verified 2026) Official source
N.D.C.C. 28-27-04 "Time for appeal. Superseded by N.D.R.App.P., Rule 4." (verified 2026) Official source
N.D.C.C. 32-03-21 (verified 2026) Official source
N.D.C.C. 32-03-29 (verified 2026) Official source
N.D.R.Civ.P. 3 rule text and explanatory note (verified 2026) Official source
N.D.R.Civ.P. 6 (a)(1) and (a)(6) (verified 2026) Official source
N.D.R.Civ.P. 62 (a) (verified 2026) Official source
N.D.R.Civ.P. 81 (a) (verified 2026) Official source
N.D.R.App.P. 4 (a)(1) (verified 2026) Official source
N.D. Sup. Ct. Admin. R. 13 sections 5(a)(11), 10(a)-(b), 11(a) (verified 2026) Official source
North Dakota Legal Self Help Center, Instructions for Eviction Forms (Rev. Jun 2026) pp. 3, 5-6, 9, 14-15 (procedure, judicial referees, Rule 6 counting, 3/15-day hearing window, service deadlines) (verified 2026) Official source
North Dakota Legal Self Help Center, Notice of Intention to Evict (Form 1b/Rev. Feb 2024) "within Three (3) days of service of this Notice, you must move out and deliver possession" (verified 2026) Official source

How this record was verified: Direct read of statute text in the official North Dakota Century Code chapter PDFs on ndlegis.gov (t47c16.pdf read in full, t47c32.pdf sections 47-32-01/-02/-05, t09c08.pdf section 9-08-04), whose official currency page states the posted code reflects all changes approved by the 69th Legislative Assembly, current as of 2025-07-01. Every key figure (1-month deposit cap; 2-month felony and prior-judgment exceptions; pet deposit greater of $2,500 or 2 months; 30-day itemized return; 9-month interest threshold; treble damages; 30-day written change-of-terms notice covering rent; 25-day tenant termination after a change notice; one-calendar-month m2m termination; no entry-hour figure) was read twice independently — official PDF pass plus codes.findlaw.com mirror pass (current through 2024-01-01), reconciled verbatim, with deposit figures additionally matched against the current-law baseline reprinted in introduced HB 1272 (2025). Amendment history pinned from official session-law PDFs: 2015 ch. 312 (HB 1192, pet deposit subsection), 2017 ch. 316 (HB 1220, felony exception), 2019 ch. 379 (HB 1150, prior-judgment exception). 2025 regular-session sweep via official bill-overview pages: HB 1272 (inspections/deposits) failed House 41-47 on 2025-02-07; SB 2236 (late-fee cap amending 47-16-20) failed Senate 7-39 on 2025-02-04; SB 2237 (labor-commissioner oversight) failed 5-41; SB 2366 (notice of intention to evict) failed 8-37; SB 2238 (eviction-record sealing, now 47-32-05) enacted, signed 2025-03-26 — out of v1 topic scope. January 2026 special session (3 days) was Rural Health Transformation Program only; no regular session in 2026, next regular session January 2027. Negative findings (no late-fee statute, no entry-hour figure, no deposit-interest rate figure, no frequency limits) verified against the complete section-heading list of ch. 47-16 read from the official chapter PDF, run twice.