Video: What You Need To Know When Renting

COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI)- Earlier this week we brought you one woman’s story about renting a home and how she was apparently forced to leave.

We wanted to find out exactly what rights both the landlord and tenant have. There are a lot of legalities involved when renting a property.

A lease must be signed and both parties, the landlord and tenant, are obligated by law to hold up each end of the agreement. However, that doesn’t always happen.

“The police they don’t want fights, they don’t want drama. The simple way is to file the civil action in justice court, allow the justice court to evict the individual and then to have him removed. If they won’t leave peacefully, the sheriff’s office will go over there and force-ably remove them from your property,” says Hosford.

Starkville attorney, Jeff Hosford, says in most cases, the majority of people follow the law but things can quickly get out of hand.

“Most landlords won’t go take the doors off the hinges or open the door with a lock where you cant get in it,” says Hosford.

If that does happen, Hosford says tenants also have rights.

“Typically you’re allowed to file a suit similar to a landlord being able to evict you. You can file a suit for an illegal eviction and ask for damages that may or may have not occurred, and then the court could award you for damages for those situations,” says Hosford.

Monroe County Sheriff Cecil Cantrell says sometimes the process to evict someone can be costly and that could be a reason landlords try to handle it themselves.

“Basically, it could cost the landlord maybe a hundred bucks to get someone out of their property. So it just keeps costing more and more money; so that’s why some landlords just go ahead and take it into their own hands,” says Hosford.

Cantrell understands it can be frustrating, but says everyone must follow the law and deputies can always help.

“They’ll be glad to show you the proper steps you have, and you have these proper steps that’s what the law provides you to do, is to take these steps to get someone removed from your premises so you can re-rent your property,” says Hosford.