Alabama Eviction Process: Notice Periods, Timeline, and Costs

Under Ala. Code § 35-9A-421(b), if rent is unpaid when due the landlord may deliver written notice stating the amount of rent and any late fees owed, and that the rental agreement terminates on a date not less than seven business days after receipt. These are business days, not calendar days, so weekends and legal holidays are excluded and the notice usually runs nine to eleven calendar days in real time. The notice must specify the dollar amount owed; a vague 'pay up or get out' letter is a common reason cases get dismissed. Deliver it personally or by a method that lets you prove receipt, since the clock runs from the tenant's receipt, not from mailing.

For material noncompliance with the lease, Ala. Code § 35-9A-421(a) requires written notice describing the specific acts or omissions and stating that the agreement terminates not less than seven business days after receipt if the breach is not cured. Section 35-9A-421(d) makes certain defaults noncurable on seven days' notice with no right to fix them, including drug manufacture or distribution, illegal firearm activity, criminal assault or threats, and repeating substantially the same breach within six months of a prior cure. The same subsection bars a tenant from curing any breach more than twice in a twelve-month period without the landlord's written consent.

Ala. Code § 35-9A-441(b) lets either party end a month-to-month tenancy with written notice given at least 30 days before the periodic rental date named in the notice; week-to-week tenancies require at least seven days. Alabama has no statewide just-cause eviction requirement and no longer-notice tier for long-term tenants. Local rent control is preempted by Ala. Code § 11-80-8.1, so no Alabama city can impose a good-cause or rent-cap layer on top of the state rule.

Ala. Code § 35-9A-461 gives district courts and circuit courts jurisdiction over eviction actions, with venue in the county where the property sits; nearly all small-landlord cases are filed as an unlawful detainer in district court. Filing fees are set county by county and generally run in the $240 to $300 range, for example $247 in Montgomery County, plus a separate sheriff's service fee of roughly $30 and about $10 for each additional named tenant.

The tenant has seven days from service or posting of the eviction summons and complaint to file a written answer with the court clerk, the shortened response time set by Alabama Rule of Civil Procedure 12(dc) for unlawful detainer. If no answer arrives in that window the landlord can move for a default judgment, but the court still expects proof that the pre-suit notice was properly given.

An uncontested Alabama eviction usually takes about five to eight weeks: seven business days on the notice, filing and service, a seven-day answer window, a hearing date, and then a seven-day automatic stay on the writ of possession under Ala. Code § 35-9A-461. It stretches longer when service by posting is required, when the tenant answers and raises habitability or improper-notice defenses, or when the sheriff's office has a backlog of writs to execute.

Alabama forbids self-help eviction. A landlord may not change the locks, remove the tenant's belongings, or shut off heat, running water, hot water, electricity, gas, or any other essential service to force a tenant out, and Ala. Code § 35-9A-407 lets the tenant sue whether or not the lease says otherwise. The tenant can recover possession or terminate the lease and, either way, collect the greater of up to three months' periodic rent or actual damages, plus reasonable attorney fees, and if the lease is terminated the landlord must also return the security deposit and all unearned prepaid rent. Only a sheriff acting on a court-issued writ of possession can physically remove a tenant.

The single most common Alabama mistake is counting the notice period in calendar days. Section 35-9A-421 says business days, so a notice received on a Thursday does not expire until the middle of the following week, and filing even one day early can get the case thrown out and force you to start over. Watch the two-cure limit in § 35-9A-421(d) as well: once a tenant has cured the same type of breach twice in twelve months, or repeats substantially the same breach within six months of curing it, you are no longer required to offer another cure period. An individual owner may file and appear without a lawyer in district court, but if the property is titled to an LLC or corporation that entity generally must be represented by an attorney, which catches many small landlords by surprise.

• Ala. Code § 35-9A-421
• Ala. Code § 35-9A-441
• Ala. Code § 35-9A-407