Removing a Live-In Partner Who Is Not on the Lease

Attorney Answer

The police almost certainly will not put him out for you — Idaho treats removing an occupant as a civil matter — and the more urgent problem is the one you already sensed: his drugs can get you evicted from your own rental.

Start with the drugs, because that risk is live right now. Idaho Code § 6-303 defines unlawful detainer, and subsection (5) makes controlled substance activity on leased premises its own ground for eviction. The tenant on the lease is you. If the landlord learns there are drugs in the unit, the eviction filed is against your tenancy, not his presence, and your name is the one that carries the record forward to the next landlord.

On removing him, the routes are narrower than people expect. Section 6-303(3) lets a tenant use these proceedings to recover possession from an undertenant who is unlawfully detaining premises that were underlet to him — but that describes a subtenant. A boyfriend who pays nothing, is not on your month-to-month lease and does not even receive mail there is most likely a guest or licensee rather than an undertenant, so that provision may not fit your situation. Where a possession action does apply, possession is recovered through a court judgment of restitution: under Idaho Code § 6-316(2), once the court finds for the landlord and awards possession, a residential tenant has 72 hours to remove his belongings, and the sheriff restores possession only after that period has run and three days have passed since the court's finding. That is a court process with a filing and a hearing, not a phone call.

And the fast sheriff-removal process people mention online for 'unauthorized occupants' is not yours to use: it is available only to a property owner or the owner's authorized agent, and it expressly does not apply where the occupant is a current or former tenant. That is your landlord's tool.

What that leaves you is a combination: your landlord, the courts, and — if he has frightened or threatened you — a protection order, which is the one order police will enforce on the spot.

What you can do

1. Give him written notice to leave, dated, delivered in a way you can prove, and keep a copy. Everything after this depends on having made a clear demand. 2. If he has threatened you or you are afraid of him, go to the court clerk about a protection order. That is the fastest route to an order that requires him to stay away and that officers will enforce, and it does not depend on the lease. 3. Talk to your landlord or the property owner. The owner has removal remedies you do not. Understand the tradeoff honestly: telling the landlord may put your own tenancy at risk, but it is a smaller risk than a drug charge or an eviction filed over what is found in the unit. 4. Do not hold, hide, move or dispose of his drugs, and do not store anything of his in your name. If you are questioned by police, say you want a lawyer. 5. Do not use self-help — no changing the locks, no putting his belongings on the curb, no shutting off utilities. Those can create liability for you and can turn a civil dispute into a criminal complaint against you. 6. If he still will not leave, file in the magistrate division to recover possession; if you obtain a judgment of restitution, the sheriff removes him under § 6-316(2) — and only after the 72-hour removal period and three days from the court's finding. 7. Ask the police for a civil standby while he collects his belongings, and be present with a witness. That is the assistance officers do routinely provide.