You own a rental in Huntsville. Rent was due on the first. It’s the fifteenth. You’ve sent two texts and gotten one story.
The good news, and it is genuinely good news: Alabama law is on your side here, more than in most states. You have a seven-business-day notice period, one of the shortest in the country. Evictions get scheduling priority over every other civil case on the docket. Your tenant cannot legally withhold rent to force repairs, and cannot stop an eviction by appealing unless they pay the rent into court first.
The bad news is that using any of it costs money and takes weeks, and the arithmetic on a single rental house in Huntsville right now is worse than most owners realize.
Here are your three options, honestly.
Before anything else: do not accept partial rent
This is the mistake that costs Huntsville landlords their case, and it is worth putting ahead of everything else.
Under Ala. Code § 35-9A-424, accepting rent when you know the tenant is in default waives your right to terminate the lease for that default — unless you’ve agreed otherwise in writing after the breach happened.
So if your tenant is two months behind, you serve notice, and then they hand you $400 and you take it, you may have just reset the whole thing. If you want to accept partial payment while preserving your position, get a written agreement signed first that says so explicitly. Talk to an attorney about the wording — this is cheap to do right and expensive to do wrong.
#1. Negotiate
Worth trying first, and not just to be nice. An eviction in Madison County costs $302 to file before you pay anyone for anything else, and a turnover costs you weeks of vacancy plus make-ready. A tenant who catches up is almost always cheaper than a tenant you replace.
What actually works:
- Get the real story. Job loss, a medical bill, a car repair, or a hard month is very different from someone who has decided not to pay. The first is often fixable.
- Put any payment plan in writing, signed, with dates and amounts — and with language that preserves your right to proceed if they miss it.
- Consider cash for keys. If they can’t catch up, paying a tenant a few hundred dollars to be out clean by a date certain is frequently cheaper and faster than the courthouse. Get the surrender in writing.
- Point them at help. Legal Services Alabama in Huntsville is at 256-536-9645. A tenant who gets rental assistance and pays you is a better outcome than a vacant unit.
If that doesn’t work, you move on.
#2. Evict
This is where the internet will mislead you, so here is the real sequence.
Step 1 — The seven-business-day notice.
Under Ala. Code § 35-9A-421(b), if rent is unpaid when due you deliver a written notice specifying the amount of rent and late fees owed, stating the lease terminates on a date not less than seven business days after they receive it. If they don’t pay in those seven business days, the lease terminates.
Business days, not calendar days — so a weekend pushes it out, and a holiday pushes it further.
One thing worth knowing: Madison County’s own court website and the 2024 Legal Services Alabama tenant handbook both still say “fourteen day notice for anything else” for non-rent lease violations. That figure is out of date. The legislature shortened it to seven days in 2014 and to seven business days in 2018. For nonpayment — your situation — it is unambiguously seven business days. For a non-rent breach, the statute also says seven business days, but because the clerk’s published guidance still says fourteen, some Huntsville attorneys give fourteen anyway on non-rent notices. It costs nothing and forecloses an argument.
Step 2 — File the unlawful detainer.
The action is called an unlawful detainer, and for a Huntsville residential rental you file it in:
Madison County District Court, Civil Division 100 North Side Square, Room 821, Huntsville, AL 35801 256-532-3622
You file Form C-59. The current cost is $302.00, plus $10 for each additional defendant and a $20 sheriff service fee — so $322.00 all in for a single tenant served by the sheriff. You can sue for possession and unpaid rent in the same action.
Step 3 — Service and the answer period.
The sheriff must attempt personal service first. If that fails, they can post a copy on the door and mail a copy first class the same day or by close of the next business day.
Your tenant then has seven calendar days to answer the possession claim. (If you also sued for money, they get fourteen days on that part — so the money side can lag behind the possession side.)
Step 4 — Default or trial.
No answer, you apply for a default judgment — that’s another $50 in Madison County. If they do answer, you get a trial setting, and under § 35-9A-461(b) eviction actions “shall be entitled to precedence in scheduling over all other civil cases.”
There is no jury in district court. A tenant can only get a jury by appealing to circuit court and demanding it in the notice of appeal.
Step 5 — The writ, and the seven-day stay.
Here’s the part people don’t expect. After you win, there is a mandatory seven-day stay before a writ of possession can issue — you cannot even request it until day seven. Then you file Form C-59A with a $20 sheriff fee, and the Madison County Sheriff’s Civil Division (256-532-3421) schedules and executes the eviction.
Step 6 — If they appeal.
They have seven days to appeal. But an appeal does not stop the eviction unless the tenant pays all rent due into the circuit clerk and keeps paying as it comes due. If they miss a payment, the court issues the writ on motion. An Affidavit of Substantial Hardship does not excuse that bond.
So how long, really?
Uncontested: about four to eight weeks from serving the notice to getting keys. Contested: two to four months or more. The step nobody can predict is the sheriff’s scheduling — call the Civil Division and ask; don’t trust a number you read online, including this one.
What you absolutely cannot do
Do not change the locks. Do not shut off the power or water. Do not put their belongings on the curb.
Ala. Code § 35-9A-427 prohibits it, and § 35-9A-407 lets the tenant recover possession or terminate the lease, plus up to three months’ rent or actual damages, whichever is greater, plus their attorney’s fees. A self-help eviction can cost you more than the unpaid rent several times over. It is the single most expensive mistake a frustrated landlord makes.
One piece of good news on the back end: under § 35-9A-423(d), if a tenant leaves property behind more than 14 days after termination, you have no duty to store or protect it and may dispose of it. That’s unusually landlord-favorable.
#3. Sell the Property, Tenants and All
Sometimes the tenant isn’t really the problem. The tenant is just the thing that finally made you look at the whole picture.
We buy tenant-occupied properties in Huntsville and Madison County. You don’t evict first, you don’t turn the unit, you don’t repair anything, and you don’t clean. We take the property as-is with the tenant in place, and dealing with the occupancy becomes our problem instead of yours.
That is not the right answer for everybody, and we’ll say so on the phone. If you have real equity, the unit is in decent shape, and this is one bad tenant in an otherwise fine rental, evicting and re-leasing will usually put more money in your pocket than selling. We’d rather tell you that than take a house you shouldn’t sell.
Where selling tends to make sense is when the numbers stopped working a while ago.
The part most landlord articles skip: the math right now
Huntsville is a great city and a genuinely hard rental market at this moment.
Asking rents in the Huntsville market fell about 2.8% to 3.0% over the trailing twelve months, and rent growth has been negative in 2023, 2024 and 2025 — three straight years. As of the end of 2025 there were roughly 4,900 vacant units still in initial lease-up across the market.
Which means this: new construction is offering one to two months free as the norm, and three months free is not uncommon.
Now think about what you’re competing with. Your tenant — or your next one — can move into a brand-new building with a pool and get two or three months of free rent. You have a house with a water heater from 2011.
Meanwhile, 47.5% of Huntsville’s housing stock was built before 1980, and 18.8% was built in the 1960s alone — the Apollo-era boom. If your rental is one of those, the original roof, HVAC, service panel and plumbing are all past useful life at the same time, and they tend to fail in the same few years.
Add up what you’re actually netting: gross rent, minus vacancy, minus the turnover you’re about to eat, minus taxes and insurance, minus the repair you’ve been putting off, minus $322 at the courthouse and the weeks of lost rent. For a lot of single-property Huntsville landlords, that number has been negative for a while and the non-paying tenant is just what made it visible.
One more thing: the Huntsville business license
Most landlords don’t know about this one.
The City of Huntsville requires a business license to rent residential property under Schedule 72 of its license fee schedule. There’s an exemption if you take in less than $10,000 a year in residential rental gross receipts — but at Huntsville’s median gross rent of roughly $1,171 a month, a single rented house grosses about $14,050 a year, which is over the line.
So the typical accidental landlord with one house does need a city business license. The fee is small — $35 base plus $1 per $1,000 over $10,000, so roughly $39 on that example. Licenses expire December 31, renewal is due January 31, and there’s a 15% penalty on February 1. The Revenue Division is at 256-427-5080.
Worth checking your own status before it compounds.
Where to start
If the tenant might catch up: get a written payment agreement, and don’t accept a partial payment without one.
If they won’t: serve the seven-business-day notice today. Every day you wait is another day of free rent.
And if you’ve been quietly done with this property for a while, call or text (256) 692-1014. We’ll look at the actual numbers with you — including the case for keeping it, if that’s what the math says.
— Norlen and Ralph, South House Buyers
South House Buyers is not a law firm and this article is not legal advice. Court fees, forms and procedures change. Verify current filing costs with the Madison County District Court Civil Division at 256-532-3622, and talk to an Alabama attorney about your specific situation. Accurate as of September 2026.
FAQs
How much notice do I have to give a tenant in Alabama for not paying rent? Seven business days. Under Ala. Code § 35-9A-421(b) you deliver written notice specifying the rent and late fees owed, stating the lease terminates on a date not less than seven business days after receipt. Business days, so weekends and holidays extend it.
How long does an eviction take in Huntsville? Roughly four to eight weeks from serving the notice to getting possession if the tenant doesn’t contest it. Two to four months or more if they do. The sheriff’s scheduling for executing the writ is the least predictable step.
What does it cost to evict someone in Madison County? The unlawful detainer filing fee is $302, plus $10 per additional defendant and a $20 sheriff service fee — about $322 for one tenant. A default judgment application adds $50, and the writ of possession adds another $20. That’s before lost rent, make-ready, or any attorney.
Do I need a lawyer to evict a tenant in Alabama? An individual landlord can file and represent themselves in district court. If the property is owned by an LLC or corporation, a non-lawyer member generally cannot represent the entity — that typically requires an attorney. Worth a call to one either way.
Can I change the locks or shut off the utilities? No. Ala. Code § 35-9A-427 prohibits it, and § 35-9A-407 lets the tenant recover up to three months’ rent or actual damages, whichever is greater, plus attorney’s fees. It is the most expensive mistake a frustrated landlord can make.
My tenant says they won’t pay until I fix something. Can they do that? No. Ala. Code § 35-9A-164 says a tenant may not withhold rent while in possession to enforce their rights. Even a tenant who files a counterclaim must pay rent into court as it comes due. You do still have a duty to maintain the property under § 35-9A-204 — but that’s a separate issue from the rent.
Can you buy my rental with the tenant still living in it? Yes. We buy occupied properties in Huntsville and Madison County as-is. You don’t need to evict, repair, clean, or turn the unit first.
Do I need a business license to rent out a house in Huntsville? Probably, yes. The city exempts residential rental gross receipts under $10,000 a year, but a single house at Huntsville’s median rent grosses roughly $14,000 — over the threshold. The fee is small. Call the Revenue Division at 256-427-5080.