• This information is NOT LEGAL ADVICE and is provided for informational purposes only.
• Your rights depend on the type of housing you live in, such as Public Housing, or Subsidized (eg Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher), or private.
• This information is a summary. To find detailed information about tenants rights in North Carolina, we recommend Legal Aid of NC’s Landlord-tenant resources page or the NC General Statute Chapter 42

• NC tenants are at a disadvantage since landlords have greater access to lawyers and information about landlord-tenant law in NC and the eviction process happens too fast to allow tenants to assert their rights.
• To most effectively defend your rights, legal strategies should be combined with organizing strategies to build powerful organizations.
• Asserting your legal rights can be risky, even though there is state law that protects against retaliatory evictions. 
• The legal system is designed to benefit those with money and time. Legal processes can take a very long time to resolve and can require a lot of money if you don’t have free legal counsel.
• Legal power isn’t the only kind of power you have. You and your neighbors also have public, economic, and political power.
• Generally speaking, whenever possible, it is better to assert your rights as a group. Usually an individual tenant fighting their landlord will lose. Building big, powerful organizations that engage a lot of your neighbors is the best way to assert your rights and keep you and your family safe.
• The best way to minimize your risk of retaliation and maximize what you and your neighbors can win is to work with an experienced tenant organizer who can help you build a plan to win.

• Yes! Your right to organize with your neighbors is protected by law.
• In project-based Section 8 housing, you are explicitly given:
  • The right to organize as residents without obstruction, harassment, or retaliation from property owners or management.
  • The right to provide leaflets and post materials in common areas informing other residents of their rights and opportunities to involve themselves in their property. 
  • The right to use appropriate common space or meeting facilities to organize (this may be subject to a reasonable, HUD-approved fee). 
  • The right to meet without representatives or employees of the owner/management company present. 
  • The right to be recognized by property owners/management company as having a voice in residential community affairs.

• State Law protects you from ‘retaliatory eviction’ for:
  • Joining any organization promoting or enforcing tenants’ rights
  • Asking your landlord to do repairs
  • Asking for housing inspection
  • Enforcing rights in your lease.
  • Complaining about discrimination under the Fair Housing Act
• If your landlord tries to evict you for organizing, you can claim that the eviction is retaliatory as a valid defense.
• But – the landlord can still evict you if:
  • You owe rent
  • Your lease term has ended
  • You have violated the lease in another way and the lease allows the landlord to evict you
• In subsidized housing, you have the right to a renewal lease and your rent should be adjusted according to your income. Tenants in subsidized housing have more rights and protections than tenants in private housing.

• Often, tenants are legally entitled to a right but actually enforcing that right is hard. This can happen for many reasons, including:
  • Enforcing the right requires hiring a lawyer, which requires time and money
  • Enforcing the right requires meaningful access to information and enforcement.

• Yes! NC State Law requires landlords to ‘maintain in good and safe working order’ essential infrastructure of your housing. 

Cities often have ‘minimum housing codes’ which expand these bare minimum requirements from state law. To find your city’s minimum housing code, look up your city in the North Carolina – Municode Library

• No – you cannot withhold rent even if your landlord isn’t doing repairs (or, in legalese, has violated the implied warranty of habitability) unless ordered by a court.
• If it doesn’t seem fair to you that your landlord can violate your lease by not providing you with basic services but still require money from you, join your local tenant union to fight to change this state law.

• You can sue to get a rent reduction after you’ve paid your rent, called a rent abatement. The amount of the rent abatement is determined by the court. To calculate the rent abatement, the court takes the fair market value of the property (i.e your rent) and assesses how much less the property is valued given the needed repairs. Generally, worse conditions would lead to a greater reduction in rent. 
• If the amount the landlord owes back to the tenant in a rent abatement is more than the rent the tenant owes in a non-payment eviction case, the court may dismiss the case in the tenants favor.

• Yes – You must continue to pay rent to the court while in eviction proceedings or while appealing your eviction.

NC law allows for four types of evictions, these are:

• Nonpayment of rent 
• Holdover – you overstayed your lease term.
• Breach of lease – For any kind of breaking your lease. This includes not paying rent but can also include breaking other terms of your lease (like having too many people living in your home)
• Criminal Activity – Landlords can always try to evict you for alleged criminal activity.
  • The landlord does not need to prove ‘beyond a reasonable doubt’ that the tenant committed the crime like they would in a criminal case. Instead, what’s called ‘a preponderance of the evidence’ is the burden of proof. Tenants do not have the same procedural rights to defend themselves against allegations of criminal activity in civil cases as criminal defendants do.
  • Tenants can be evicted for Criminal Activity even if the person who committed the alleged crime no longer lives in the unit
  • Tenants can defend an eviction because of criminal acts done by guests or household members if the tenant could not have reasonably known of the criminal acts or if they took all reasonable steps to prevent or stop the criminal behavior.

• It is illegal for a landlord to evict you in any way other than through the legal eviction process. This means that landlords cannot just change your locks or remove your belongings without going to court first.
• Evictions are in civil (i.e. not criminal) court. Most evictions happen in small claims court. Because evictions are civil and not criminal, you are not legally entitled to a lawyer when facing an eviction (yet, we’re working on it. Join us!)
• Landlords must file a ‘complaint in summary ejectment’ or eviction complaint with the court.

• Step 1: Landlord files eviction complaint 
• Step 2: Within a week of the landlord filing the complaint (NOT the tenant receiving the complaint) a court date is set. Tenants are entitled to two days notice before their eviction hearings. This notice often takes the form of ‘posting’ on the tenants door, so be sure to look for an eviction notice that may have fallen off your door if you think you’re landlord might be trying to evict you. 
• Step 3: Court Hearing
  • The magistrate (judge) can take up to 5 days to give a ruling, but usually they issue their order immediately.
  • If the tenant loses
    • The tenant has 10 days (including weekends and holidays) to appeal for a trial “de novo” (new trial) in District Court and post a rent bond (pay rent to the court). If the tenant doesn’t file their appeal before the deadline then they lose their right to appeal.
• Step 4: No appeal is filed
  • The landlord then files a ‘writ of possession’ which is an order to tell the sheriff to and remove the tenant’s property and let the landlord change the locks
    • Lockouts usually happen within a week of the landlord filing the ‘writ of possession’
    • The sheriff should inform the tenant when the lockout will happen, though sometimes this notice only comes a day or two before the lockout. 
    • The sheriff often only gives a few minutes for the tenant to remove their property at the time of the lockout
    • Tenants can return to get their property within 7 days of the lockout during business hours and need to coordinate access to the unit with their former landlord.
    • Tenants can return to get their property within 7 days of the lockout during business hours and need to coordinate access to the unit with their former landlord.
  • Source: Legal Aid Eviction Defense Manual, Pg 14, 16, 17)

• Protection from discrimination – There are federal and NC Fair Housing Acts that prohibit housing discrimination based on race, color, religion, national origin, sex, familial status and disability. For more information: fairhousingnc.org/know-your-rights/
• Late Fees – NC law limits the amount a landlord can charge for late payment of rent:
  • For monthly rent, late fees cannot be more than $15 or 5% of the rent amount, whichever is more.
  • For weekly rent, late fees cannot be more than $4 or 5% of the rent amount.
  • A late fee can only be charged once and cannot be deducted from a rent payment.
• Administrative & Out of Pocket Fees – NC law allows landlords to charge fees for stages of the eviction process if the fees are included in the lease. These “administrative fees” are separate from late fees. NC law limits the administrative fees as follows:
  • Complaint Filing Fee – $15 or 5% of the monthly rent whichever is greater
  • Court Appearance Fee – 10% of the monthly rent
  • Second Trial Fee – 12% of monthly rent if case appealed to District Court
    • Landlord can only claim one of the above fees
    • The administrative fee may not be deducted from the rent to cause the tenant to be in default with their rent payment.
    • Out of Pocket Fees – A landlord may charge for costs connected with the eviction case as follows: filing and service fees; attorneys’ fees, capped at 15% of the rent past due or 15% of the rent if the case is not for failure to pay rent
  • Security Deposits – NC law limits the amount a landlord can charge for a security deposit and regulates how a landlord must return the deposit or apply it to damages caused by the tenant.
    • For a week to week lease, the security deposit can not be more than 2 weeks rent
    • For a month to month lease, the security deposit can not be more than 1 and half months rent
    • For leases longer that month to month, the security deposit cannot be more than 2 months rent
  • Pet Deposits – A landlord may charge a “reasonable” non-refundable fee for a tenant’s pet. Reasonable is not defined.