Indiana Eviction Process: Notice Periods, Timeline, and Costs

IC 32-31-1-6 lets a landlord terminate on not less than 10 days' written notice when rent is unpaid, unless the parties agreed otherwise or the tenant pays in full before the notice period expires. These are calendar days. IC 32-31-1-7 supplies safe-harbor notice language, and the notice should identify the premises, the amount due, and the deadline. Indiana prescribes no service method for this notice, so follow the lease's notice clause and document delivery, typically by hand plus certified mail.

IC 32-31-7-7 bars a landlord's action unless the tenant was notified of the noncompliance and given a reasonable time to remedy it, and Indiana sets no day count — what is reasonable is for the judge. Genuinely dangerous conduct takes a different path: under IC 32-31-6 a landlord may petition for an emergency possessory order for waste, a crime affecting the health and safety of others at the property, or materially false information used to obtain the lease, and the court must hear it within 3 business days. Nonpayment of rent is expressly not a ground for an emergency order.

IC 32-31-1-1 provides that a tenancy at will may be ended by one month's written notice delivered to the tenant, and Indiana courts and the Small Claims Manual treat month-to-month tenancies as requiring at least 30 days' notice from either side unless the lease says otherwise. Indiana has no just-cause eviction requirement, and IC 32-31-1-20 preempts local regulation of lease terms and tenant screening.

Evictions are filed as a Notice of Claim for Possession in the small claims division of the circuit or superior court, or a Marion County township court. Total filing costs run about $87 e-filed and $97 paper in most counties, and about $130 in Marion County township courts, with roughly $28 more if you request sheriff service.

Indiana small claims requires no written answer from the tenant. The clerk sets an appearance and trial date, and the notice of claim must be served on the tenant at least 10 days before that date. A tenant who wants a jury trial must demand it within 10 days of service and pay a fee, which moves the case out of small claims and adds substantial delay.

Realistically three to seven weeks uncontested: the 10-day notice, filing, service at least 10 days before the hearing, a first setting commonly two to four weeks out, then the possession order and sheriff enforcement. A jury demand, a continuance, failed service, or a federally backed property triggering the CARES Act 30-day notice will all stretch it.

IC 32-31-5-6 bars a landlord from denying or interfering with a tenant's access or possession — including changing locks, adding an exclusion device, removing doors, windows, fixtures, or appliances, and shutting off electricity, gas, or water — outside of an emergency, good-faith repairs, or a genuinely abandoned unit. Indiana attaches no statutory damages multiplier to this section, so any site quoting a flat multiple of rent is wrong. The tenant's remedies are an emergency possessory order heard within 3 business days, plus actual and consequential damages, attorney's fees and costs, and injunctive relief under IC 32-31-8-6, with punitive damages available for egregious lockouts or utility shutoffs.

Effective July 1, 2025, SEA 142 (P.L. 128-2025) created IC 32-31-11, requiring courts to seal eviction records where the case was dismissed, decided for the tenant, or reversed on appeal, and allowing tenants to petition to seal in other circumstances. Effective January 1, 2025, an amendment to Indiana Small Claims Rule 8(C) removed the attorney requirement for corporations, LLCs, partnerships, sole proprietorships, and trusts in small claims. Marion County township courts added a $26 small claims service fee effective July 1, 2025.

Indiana is a freedom-of-contract state on notice, and this cuts both ways. IC 32-31-1-6's "unless the parties otherwise agreed" plus the six no-notice situations in IC 32-31-1-8 mean a well-drafted lease can shorten or eliminate the 10-day notice, so read your own lease before you rely on any published number. Two live issues most guides miss: the CARES Act 30-day notice to vacate still applies to federally backed and federally assisted properties in Indiana after Hazelwood v. Common Wealth Apartments (Ind. Ct. App. 2024), so serve 30 days rather than 10 on covered units; and under IC 32-31-10-4, a case you file and then sit on for 180 days gets dismissed and sealed with a $10 fee charged to you. Since January 1, 2025, Indiana Small Claims Rule 8(C) no longer requires an LLC or corporation to hire an attorney in small claims — an owner or a designated full-time employee may appear if a corporate resolution and representation affidavit are filed in each case and the claim is within the $10,000 limit.

• IC 32-31-1-6
• IC 32-31-7-7
• Indiana Small Claims Manual (Indiana Office of Court Services)