Q: Good afternoon, I am a renter, allowed a friend to stay a few days, she will not leave. No agreement. How to evict?

A: First is the question of violence you referred to. IF credible, you may want to seek a FAPA restraining order against your friend. If the court grants it, even just temporarily, it would have the Sheriff remove her from the premises and you do not have to ever let her back in (though she would have the right to recover any of her personal property left behind - by having friends or others move it out for her). The additional benefit of this approach is that the first she might know of it is when the Sheriff is there to remove her, preventing any opportunity for her to damage your dwelling.

If that is inappropriate for your situation, the next question is how long has she been there and has she paid anything or otherwise has she created any sort of a landlord-tenant relationship between the two of you. IF she has only been there a few days, the police may (or may not) be willing to remove her as a trespasser but if she has been there long enough for the police to believe she has established a residency, then your only way to get rid of her is through a court action. IF there is a landlord-tenant relationship, you may be able to serve her appropriate notice and file to evict if she fails to timely leave. If there is not a landlord-tenant relationship, you likely will have to file in court to eject her. Eviction and ejection have similar goals - get her out asap, with the Sheriff's assistance if necessary. But how you get there legally is very different, with ejection usually taking longer and costing more.

Other options include, as galling as it may be, to see if paying her off will get her out. It can be any amount the 2 of you agree to BUT do NOT giver her a penny until she and all her property are all the way out. Otherwise she can just pocket the cash and stay anyway, leaving you worse off than you started. IF there is no landlord-tenant relationship between you, as long as you DO NOT break the peace, you likely can use self-help measures to 'encourage" her to move - lock her out; shut off utilities to her room, etc. This option is fraught with peril however and should only be taken after full consideration of everything, likely only after consultation with a local landlord-tenant attorney and/or the local police to be sure they will not insist that she be allowed to move back in.

Lastly, depending upon the exact facts, your landlord may indeed end up evicting you - which would also evict her. It may be that the landlord would be willing to turn around and re-rent to you after evicting you, but that takes a lot of cooperation and trust between you and the landlord.

Good luck.