eviction

The removal of a tenant from possession of premises in which he or she resides or has a property interest done by a landlord either by reentry upon the premises or through a court action.

Eviction may be in the form of a physical removal of a person from the premises or a disturbance of the tenant's enjoyment of the premises by disrupting the services and amenities that contribute to the habitability of the premises, such as by cutting off all utilities services to an apartment. The latter method is known as constructive eviction. An action of Ejectment is a legal process by which a landlord or owner of land may seek the eviction of his or her tenant.

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eviction n. a generic word for the act of expelling (kicking out) someone from real property either by legal action (suit for unlawful detainer), a claim of superior (actual) title to the property, or actions which prevent the tenant from continuing in possession (constructive eviction). Most frequently eviction consists of ousting a tenant who has breached the terms of a lease or rental agreement by not paying rent, or a tenant who has stayed (held over) after the term of the lease has expired or only had a month-to-month tenancy. (See: unlawful detainer, constructive eviction, lease, adverse possession)

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eviction noun act of driving out, act of throwing out, deprivation of possession, dislodgment, dispossession, ejection, ejectment, entry under paramount title, evictio, expulsion, extrusion, forcible expulsion from propprty, intentional exclusion of lessee, ouster, ouster by paraaount title, recovery of property from another's possession, removal, take-over of property
Associated concepts: abandonment of possession, actual eviction, breach of covenant of quiet enjoyment, construccive eviction, eviction by paramount title, partial eviction, total eviction, unlawful eviction
Foreign phrases: Sive tota res evincatur, sive pars, habet regressum emptor in venditorem.The purchaser who has been evicted totally or in part has an action against the vendor.

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See also: banishment, deportation, discharge, dismissal, disqualification, expropriation, expulsion, foreclosure, forfeiture, ostracism, ouster, proscription, rejection

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EVICTION. The loss or deprivation which the possessor of a thing suffers, either in whole or in part, of his right of property in such a thing, in consequence of the right of a third person established before a competent tribunal. 10 Rep. 128; 4 Kent, Com. 475-7; 3 Id. 464-5.
     2. The eviction may be total or partial. It is total, when the possessor is wholly deprived of his rights in the whole thing; partial, when he is deprived of only a portion of the thing; as, if he had fifty acres of land, and a third person recovers by a better title twenty-five; or, of some right in relation to the thing. as, if a stranger should claim and establish a right to some easement over the same. When the grantee suffers a total eviction, and he has a covenant of seisin, he recovers from the seller, the consideration money, with interest and costs, and no more. The grantor has no concern with the future rise or fall of the property, nor with the improvements made by the purchaser. This seems to be the general rule in the United States. 3 Caines' R. 111; 4 John. R. 1; 13 Johns. R. 50; 4 Dall. R. 441; Cooke's Term. R. 447; 1 Harr. & Munf. 202; 5 Munf. R. 415; 4 Halst. R. 139; 2 Bibb, R. 272. In Massachusetts, the measure of damages on a covenant of warranty, is the value of the land at the time of eviction. 3 Mass. R. 523; 4 Mass. R. 108. See, as to other states, 1 Bay, R. 19, 265; 3 Des. Eq. R. 245; 2 Const. R. 584; 2 McCord's R. 413; 3 Call's R. 326.
     3. When the eviction is only partial the damages to be recovered under the covenant of seisin, are a rateable part of the original price, and they are to bear the same ratio to the whole consideration, that the value of land to which the title has failed, bears to the value of the whole tract. The contract is not rescinded, so as to entitle the vendee to the whole consideration money, but only to the amount of the relative value of the part lost. 5 Johns. R. 49; 12 Johns. R. 126; Civ. Code of Lo. 2490; 4 Kent's Com. 462. Vide 6 Bac. Ab. 44; 1 Saund. R. 204: note 2, and 322 a, note 2; 1 Bouv. Inst. n. 656.