The Nevada Eviction Process (Summary Eviction), Step by Step
By Ask Nevada Law Editorial · Updated
The short version: most residential evictions in Nevada are summary evictions under NRS 40.253 and NRS 40.254 — a fast, notice-driven procedure in the justice courts. Its most important and least intuitive feature is that the roles are inverted: the landlord starts by serving a notice, not by suing, and it is the tenant who must file first with the court — an affidavit contesting the notice, within the notice deadline — to get a hearing. A tenant who files on time cannot be locked out while the case is decided (NRS 40.253(4)); if no affidavit is filed, the landlord may apply for an eviction order without any hearing at all (JCRCP 103). This page describes that process for both landlords and tenants, as the statutes lay it out. It is general legal information, not advice for any particular situation.
Track one: eviction for nonpayment of rent (NRS 40.253)
The nonpayment track is the most common summary eviction. Six stages, each with a deadline the statute sets.
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Notice
The 7-day "pay or quit" notice
A nonpayment eviction starts outside of court. When rent is in default on a dwelling, apartment, mobile home or recreational vehicle rented month-to-month or shorter, the landlord may serve a written notice requiring, in the alternative, payment of the rent or surrender of the premises "before the close of business on the seventh judicial day following the day of service" (NRS 40.253(1)). Judicial days — court business days — do the counting, and "close of business" means the court’s close of business. The notice must identify the court with jurisdiction and must tell the tenant about the right to contest, the removal timeline, and the remedies for unlawful lockouts (NRS 40.253(3)).
For a short-term tenancy (rent reserved by the week or less, tenancy of 45 days or less), the statute allows an alternative notice expiring at or before noon of the fourth full day following service (NRS 40.253(1)(b)). Commercial nonpayment has its own 5-day summary track under NRS 40.2542, and tenants of mobile home lots in mobile home parks are excluded from NRS 40.253 entirely.
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The tenant files first
The tenant’s options window
During the notice period the statute leaves the tenant three paths: pay the rent, move out, or contest. A landlord who has served the notice may not refuse rent on the ground that the tenant has not also paid collection fees, attorney’s fees or other non-rent costs, apart from a reasonable late charge or dishonored-check charge (NRS 40.253(11)). To contest, the tenant files an affidavit with the court named in the notice — within the same deadline the notice sets — stating that the tenant has tendered payment or is not in default (NRS 40.253(3)(b)(1)). Once the tenant files and the landlord receives a file-stamped copy, the landlord may not lock the tenant out (NRS 40.253(4)).
Any party to a summary eviction may apply to file without fees (in forma pauperis) on a court form; while the application is pending, the tenant’s filing deadline is tolled (JCRCP 111).
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If the tenant contests
A hearing is set
When the tenant files the contesting affidavit and the landlord files its affidavit of complaint, the court must hold a hearing, after notice to both parties, "to determine the truthfulness and sufficiency of any affidavit or notice" (NRS 40.253(6)). Summary eviction hearings are informal by rule (JCRCP 105). If the court finds no legal defense and finds the tenant guilty of unlawful detainer, it may issue a summary order for removal. If the court finds there is a legal defense, it must refuse to grant either party relief in the summary case and require further proceedings under the formal eviction statutes, NRS 40.290 to 40.420.
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If the tenant does not contest
The landlord applies for a default order
If the notice period passes without payment, surrender or a tenant filing, the landlord may apply for eviction by filing an "affidavit of complaint" with the justice court of the township (or the district court, whichever has jurisdiction). The statute prescribes its contents: when the tenancy began, the rent reserved, deposits held, when payments became delinquent, the amount claimed, proof the notice was served under NRS 40.280, and copies of the notice and any written rental agreement (NRS 40.253(5)(a)). No hearing is required at this point if the tenant never filed — although a judge may hold one anyway (JCRCP 103).
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Removal
The posted order and the lockout
An eviction order in a summary case runs through the sheriff or constable, on a clock the statute spells out: the court directs the officer to post the order in a conspicuous place on the premises within 24 hours after the officer receives it, and the officer then removes the tenant "not earlier than 24 hours but not later than 36 hours after the posting" (NRS 40.253(5)(a)). For a dwelling covered by chapter 118A, self-help by the landlord is not an alternative — NRS 118A.480 bars a landlord from recovering possession except through a court proceeding, the tenant’s surrender, or abandonment.
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After the lockout
Personal property left behind
The statutes continue past the lockout. For 5 days following an eviction or lockout, the landlord must give the former tenant a reasonable opportunity to retrieve essential personal effects — the statute lists medication, baby formula, basic clothing and personal care items (NRS 118A.460(3)). The landlord must provide safe storage of property left behind for 30 days and may charge the reasonable, actual costs of inventory, moving and storage before releasing it (NRS 118A.460(1)). Disputes go back to the same court: a motion over storage charges within 20 days, or a motion over access to essential effects within 5 days, with damages of up to $2,500 available for unreasonable conduct (NRS 40.253(7)–(9)).
Track two: eviction for other causes (NRS 40.254)
Lease violations, nuisance, and tenancies ending without stated cause follow a parallel summary track. The notices differ; the contest-first mechanics are the same.
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Notice
The notice depends on the reason
Evictions for reasons other than nonpayment also begin with a written notice, and the day count is set by the ground. Lease violations that can be fixed: a 5-day notice to perform the lease condition or surrender, and a tenant who performs within the 5 days "save[s] the lease from forfeiture" (NRS 40.2516); failure to perform basic obligations under the landlord-tenant chapter carries a similar 5-day notice (NRS 40.251(1)(b)(2)). Nuisance, waste, unlawful business, subletting contrary to the lease, or controlled-substance violations: 3 days’ notice to surrender, with no cure period in the statute (NRS 40.2514). Ending a periodic tenancy without stated cause: at least 7 days’ notice for week-to-week tenancies and at least 30 days for other periodic tenancies (NRS 40.251). A fixed-term lease simply ends at its expiration date without further notice, and staying past it is an unlawful detainer (NRS 40.250).
A lease term purporting to shorten these notice periods is void (NRS 40.252). Summary eviction notices must be specific about the ground claimed (JCRCP 101).
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Notice
Extensions written into the statute
For periodic tenancies other than week-to-week, NRS 40.251 builds in an extension: a tenant who is 60 years of age or older, or who has a physical or mental disability, may request an additional 30 days of possession beyond the notice period by submitting a written request with proof of age or disability (NRS 40.251(2)). The no-cause notice itself must advise the tenant of this right (NRS 40.251(5)), and if the landlord rejects the request, the statute lets the tenant petition the court for the extension (NRS 40.251(6)).
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The tenant files first
The 5-judicial-day contest window
As with nonpayment, the tenant is the one who must go to court to force a hearing. The notice must advise the tenant of the right to contest it by filing an affidavit with the court — before the court’s close of business on the fifth judicial day after the day of service — stating the reasons the tenant is not guilty of unlawful detainer (NRS 40.254(1)(c)). The same notice must also describe the tenant’s right to ask the court to stay execution of a removal order for up to 10 days (NRS 40.254(1)(c)(2); NRS 70.010(2)). Under court rule, that stay request is included within the tenant’s answering affidavit (JCRCP 110).
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Court
Hearing or default — then the same removal clock
From here, NRS 40.254 plugs into the machinery of NRS 40.253. A contested case gets an informal hearing on the truthfulness and sufficiency of the affidavits; an uncontested one lets the landlord file its affidavit — which must set out the tenancy dates, the notice, how it was served, and the facts supporting it (NRS 40.254(2)) — and seek an order without a hearing (JCRCP 103). A removal order is carried out by the sheriff or constable on the posted-order timeline: posting within 24 hours of receipt, removal between 24 and 36 hours after posting (NRS 40.253(5)(a)).
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The other track
The formal (non-summary) eviction alternative
Summary eviction is a supplemental remedy — the statutes say it exists "in addition to" the formal unlawful detainer action under NRS 40.290 to 40.420 (NRS 40.253(1); NRS 40.254(1)). A landlord may choose the formal route from the start: a full civil action with a complaint, a summons and a trial. And when a summary eviction hearing reveals a genuine legal defense, the court must push the dispute onto that formal track rather than decide it summarily (NRS 40.253(6)). The summary procedure itself produces one thing: an order for the removal or nonadmittance of the tenant.
Defenses and protections the statutes themselves name
Whether any of these applies in a given case is exactly the kind of question the summary eviction hearing exists to decide — but the statutes name several grounds a court can consider:
- Habitability. A tenant may withhold rent when a landlord fails to fix a material habitability problem within 14 days of written notice (NRS 118A.355) — but the statute conditions the eviction defense on the withheld rent being deposited into a court-approved escrow account (NRS 118A.355(5)).
- Retaliation. A landlord may not terminate a tenancy, refuse to renew, raise rent, cut essential services, or bring or threaten a possession action in retaliation for protected acts — such as good-faith complaints to code-enforcement agencies, joining a tenants’ union, or asserting habitability rights. A tenant “has a defense in any retaliatory action by the landlord for possession” (NRS 118A.510(2)), subject to the exceptions in that section.
- Unlawful lockout or utility shutoff. A tenant removed or excluded without court process, or whose essential services are willfully interrupted, may file a verified complaint for expedited relief within 5 judicial days; the court must hear it within 3 judicial days and may restore possession and award up to $2,500 (NRS 118A.390). The nonpayment eviction notice is required to tell tenants this remedy exists (NRS 40.253(3)(b)(3)).
- Counterclaims in nonpayment cases. In an action for possession based on nonpayment, the tenant may defend and counterclaim for amounts owed by the landlord; the court may require a tenant who stays in possession to deposit rent with the court while the case is decided (NRS 118A.490).
Eviction records can be sealed — sometimes automatically
Nevada law addresses what a summary eviction case leaves behind. Under NRS 40.2545, the court file in a summary eviction is sealed automatically when the case is dismissed; 10 judicial days after an order denying the eviction; or 31 days after the tenant filed a contesting affidavit, if the landlord never followed up with an affidavit of complaint within 30 days. Beyond the automatic rules, a court may seal a file when the landlord and tenant stipulate to it, or on the tenant’s motion when the eviction should be set aside or when sealing is in the interests of justice. Once sealed, the proceedings “shall be deemed never to have occurred” (NRS 40.2545(4)) — and eviction notices themselves must not be made available for public inspection outside a court file.
Where to get help
Summary eviction moves in days, not months, and the official self-help resources are built around its forms and deadlines — for landlords and tenants alike. The Civil Law Self-Help Center (operated under contract with Clark County) publishes plain-language guides and court-approved forms for every notice type; the State of Nevada Self-Help Center (Nevada Supreme Court) covers the rest of the state; and Nevada Legal Services provides free civil legal aid to income-qualified Nevadans statewide, including eviction matters. Any party to a summary eviction who cannot afford filing fees may apply to proceed in forma pauperis on a court form (JCRCP 111). Court fees are collected on this site’s filing fees page, and the justice court for each area appears in the county directory. The same justice courts also hear small claims — money-only claims up to $10,000 — explained in the small claims process guide.
This page explains what Nevada’s statutes and court rules say about the summary eviction process in general — for both landlords and tenants. It is not legal advice, and deadlines this short leave little room for error in a real case. Anyone facing or filing an eviction can consult a licensed Nevada attorney; the official self-help centers and legal aid organizations listed above exist for exactly this situation.