Q: I am buying my father's home and my sister is living in home and refuses to leave

A: The answer depends on a few issues. One question is how your sister lived in the home. Did they have any sort of formal agreement? Did she pay rent? The method of evicting someone differs depending on the relationship. Another issue is notice. Timing of notice is tied to the relationship as well. You mentioned giving notice many months ago, but the form of notice is important.

You will need some form of eviction. I am going to assume your sister owns no interest in the home. Eviction will take longer than a week to get an order and have her forcibly removed by a constable.

Fortunately, this is a seller's market for home sales right now in Utah, so waiting another month will likely increase the value of the home and draw additional buyers who may compete to purchase the home.

You could go to utcourts.gov and review their self-help for evictions, but your case is unusual and it is possible that you may miss something important. When that happens, you start the eviction process all over again. I highly recommend you retain an attorney to help with the eviction.

I have noted, in past negotiations on behalf of landlords, that some evictions can be avoided with a little negotiating. Some renters will leave a property if offered 200-300 dollars. This seems unfair as the tenant has remained beyond their legal right, but it is cheaper than hiring an attorney and filing a claim in court. If you approach things with a business perspective, and ignore the unfair acts of the tenant, you can often get them out quickly. You might offer to rent a truck, or help find her a new place.

Good luck.

A: As an update to my previous answer, I just noted that you are purchasing the home personally. This changes many things, the first of which is that the one week deadline is not usually a hard deadline. You can normally reschedule. It's annoying, but little is lost other than time.