• Landlords have the option of turning to the courts for legal redress.apartment for rent image by dead_account from Fotolia.com
  
  Legal remedy is a term used to describe an injunction or court order for damages against a nuisance. The term is a synonym for solution, cure or resolution. The legal remedies available for landlords against the actions of tenants include a wide variety of options, however, the legality of the remedies varies according to state law.
  
  

Penalties

• Renters violating the terms of a lease are subject to fines if specified clearly in the rental contract or lease. Typical monetary penalties include late fees for rental payments and violation of parking regulations. Fines and fees may also be assessed for rent checks paid from accounts with insufficient funds. Leases typically allow landlords to asses fines to pay to hire workers to bring the property up to code when renters fail to keep the unit clean or to answer violations of local and state health standards. While many assessed fees are determined by the nature of the lease infraction, late fees come under state regulation and must be reasonable. The fees must also be clearly stated in the rental contract. The legal firm of Clayton and McEvoy of San Jose, California, reports that "in most states there is no legally recognized grace period" for rent payment and fines accrue from the first day the rent is delinquent.
  
  

Lawsuits

• When penalties fail to encourage change, court action is an option for landlords. Injunctions are one legal remedy that may be made by the court. An injunction, according to John T. Blanchard, P.C., is "one of the oldest, and surely one of the historically classic, equitable remedies." Injunctions, the Merriam-Webster Dictionary notes, are a "writ granted by the court of equity whereby one is required to do or to refrain from doing a specified act." Lawsuits brought by landlords can also request that the court enforce provisions of the lease contract. Representatives from the California law firm of Clayton and McEvoy note that legal court challenges by landlords are considered when the lease or rental contract terms are reasonable and align with the laws of the state.
  
  

Eviction

• Eviction is the final legal remedy for a landlord when all other actions fail to achieve results. The exact procedure for this legal remedy includes a series of written warnings and notifications that involve serving legal papers issued by a court to the tenants. A legal representative of the court, in many states a marshal representing the county or city, delivers the legal documents to the tenants. The legal paperwork mandates the tenant to appear at a court hearing to determine the validity of the eviction. The hearing is an official proceeding and both landlord and tenant present a case, including testimony from subpoenaed witnesses, if necessary. The judge or arbitrator makes a finding based on the evidence presented during the hearing.