How to Evict a Tenant in North Dakota: Laws, Process, and Timeline
North Dakota Eviction Timeline 2026: Grounds Live in Chapter 47-32, Not 33-06
North Dakota’s eviction chapter, N.D.C.C. ch. 47-32, lists eight situations in which an eviction action can be brought (§ 47-32-01), and a separate section, § 47-32-02, decides which of them need a three-day written notice of intention to evict first; the case itself is heard in district court.
Grounds and Notice Periods
| Ground | Notice Period | Statute | Curable? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Non-payment of rent (rent unpaid three days after it is due) | 3 days’ written notice of intention to evict | N.D.C.C. § 47-32-01(4); notice: § 47-32-02 | No — chapter 47-32 has no provision that lets the tenant stop the case by paying the arrears |
| Violation of a material term of the written lease | 3 days’ written notice of intention to evict | N.D.C.C. § 47-32-01(8); notice: § 47-32-02 | No — chapter 47-32 sets no cure period for this ground |
| Holdover after the lease terminates or the term expires (if the landlord accepted rent after a residential lease expired, the lease is presumed renewed as month-to-month under § 47-16-06 and has to be ended under § 47-16-15(5) first) | 3 days’ written notice of intention to evict | N.D.C.C. § 47-32-01(4); notice: § 47-32-02 | N/A |
| Tenant, or someone on the premises with the tenant’s consent, unreasonably disturbs other tenants’ peaceful enjoyment | None — subsection 7 is left out of the notice rule, so the landlord can file straight away | N.D.C.C. § 47-32-01(7); § 47-32-02 | No |
| No-cause, month-to-month tenancy | At least one calendar month’s written notice given at any time, unless the parties agreed in writing to a longer notice period or a different notice time. If the tenancy became month-to-month because a residential lease expired and the landlord accepted rent (§ 47-16-06), or because an automatic renewal clause was not noticed (§ 47-16-06.1), it can be ended only on the last day of a month, with at least one calendar month’s notice | N.D.C.C. § 47-16-15(2), (5) | N/A |
A citation detail worth getting right: chapter 33-06 of the Century Code, which older guides still cite for every ground, was repealed in 2009 (S.L. 2009, ch. 65, § 8). The live grounds are the eight numbered subsections of § 47-32-01, and the three-day notice rule sits in § 47-32-02, which names subsections 4, 5, 6 and 8 only. Subsection 7, the disturbance ground, is not on that list — that omission is the whole reason a North Dakota landlord can skip notice for it. A guide can land on the right day counts while still pointing readers at a chapter that no longer exists.
The Court Process
- File. Once the three-day notice has run (or immediately, for the disturbance ground), the landlord files the eviction action in district court. It can’t be combined with other lawsuits except claims for accrued rent, profits, or damages from the tenant’s possession, and the tenant can raise a counterclaim only as a setoff against those amounts (§ 47-32-04).
- Summons. The appearance date on the summons must be no fewer than three and no more than fifteen days from the date the summons is issued (§ 47-32-02).
- Serve. Personal delivery within the county must happen at least three days before the appearance date; service elsewhere, or by any other method, at least seven days before. If the tenant can’t be found in the county after at least one attempt between 6 p.m. and 10 p.m., the summons can be posted on the door of the unit once the landlord files an affidavit and mails a copy to the tenant’s last-known address (§ 47-32-02).
- Judgment. A landlord who wins gets judgment for immediate restitution of the premises (§ 47-32-04).
- Stay and removal. If the tenant shows that immediate restitution would work a substantial hardship on the tenant or the tenant’s family, the court may stay the special execution for up to five days — but not where the judgment rests in whole or in part on a disturbance of the peace (§ 47-32-04). After that, the special execution is carried out.
What This Costs
Fees charged by the clerk of district court are set by statute, N.D.C.C. § 27-05.2-03, which does not list eviction actions as a separate category. Confirm the current fee for filing an eviction action with the clerk of the district court before filing.
How Possession Actually Changes Hands
Chapter 47-32 gives a North Dakota landlord one route to getting a unit back: a judgment for restitution, enforced through a special execution. The abandoned-property section follows the same sequence — a landlord’s lien for moving and storage costs attaches when the landlord removes a tenant’s belongings “after a judgment of eviction has been obtained and the special execution has been served” (§ 47-16-30.1). One citation to be careful with: § 47-16-13.5, sometimes quoted as a retaliation ban, is actually the mitigation-of-damages rule. The anti-retaliation clause that chapter 47-16 does contain is narrow — § 47-16-17.1(10) protects a tenant who ended a lease early as a domestic-violence victim.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is North Dakota’s eviction law found in N.D.C.C. § 33-06-01? No — chapter 33-06 was repealed in 2009. The grounds are in § 47-32-01, and the rule on which grounds need a three-day notice of intention to evict is in § 47-32-02.
Does a North Dakota tenant get a chance to fix a lease violation before being evicted? Chapter 47-32 builds in no cure period. For a violation of a material term of the written lease, the landlord gives three days’ written notice of intention to evict and can then file; the same is true for unpaid rent.
Can a North Dakota landlord skip notice entirely? For one tenant-conduct ground, yes: when the tenant, or someone on the premises with the tenant’s consent, unreasonably disturbs other tenants’ peaceful enjoyment (§ 47-32-01(7)). Because § 47-32-02 requires the three-day notice only for subsections 4, 5, 6 and 8, a disturbance case can be filed without it — and the five-day hardship stay in § 47-32-04 isn’t available when the judgment rests on a disturbance of the peace.