North Carolina keeps this short. When the lease sets a definite date for rent, the tenant forfeits the lease term if they don't pay within 10 days after you demand all past-due rent. The rule applies to verbal and written leases, and you don't need a forfeiture or reentry clause in the lease for it to work.
Step by step in North Carolina
Confirm the lease, verbal or written, fixes a definite time for paying rent.
Make a demand on the tenant for all past-due rent, not just one month or part of it.
Keep a dated copy of the demand and a note of how and when you made it.
Count 10 days from the demand.
If the rent is still unpaid after 10 days, the term is forfeited and you can move on to the court process.
Common North Carolina mistakes to avoid
Demanding only part of what is past due.
Filing before the 10 days have run.
Assuming the lease needs a special forfeiture clause before you can rely on this rule.
This is general information, not legal advice. The verified rule and official sources above control. Check the source or a local attorney for your situation.
Related North Carolina rules
Eviction court process & timeline
The clerk's summons requires the tenant to appear and answer within 7 days of issuance, excluding weekends and holidays. The officer must try to serve it at least 2 days before the appearance date.
North Carolina sets eviction (summary ejectment) court costs in its general civil-cost statute. A case assigned to a magistrate is assessed $80 for the General Court of Justice, a $12 courtroom facilities fee and a $4 court technology fee ($96 in all). In district court the amounts are $130, $16 and $4. Service of process and other costs can be added. Statute text (magistrate case): "except that if the case is assigned to a magistrate the sum shall be eighty dollars ($80.00)" (N.C. Gen. Stat. § 7A-305(a)(1), (1a), (2)).
Banned. A residential tenant may be removed only through the court procedures in Article 3 or 7 of ch. 42 (§ 42-25.6). A tenant removed otherwise may recover possession or end the lease and recover damages (§ 42-25.9(a)).
Yes, as a defense. In a summary ejectment case a tenant may raise retaliatory eviction if the landlord acted substantially in response, within 12 months before filing, to a good-faith repair request, a good-faith complaint to a government agency, a government complaint against the landlord, a good-faith effort to enforce lease or legal rights, or tenant-organizing activity. The landlord may still win for nonpayment or another substantial breach, or a holdover after a fixed term (§ 42-37.1).
A tenant who holds over after the term expires, without the landlord's permission and after a demand to leave, can be removed through summary ejectment.
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