In December, state Representative Mack Butler, R-Rainbow City, prefiled House Bill 80, a bill which would require providing additional information to tenants during the eviction process and give civil immunity to individuals executing a writ of possession.
Under current law, the notice that begins the eviction process simply includes a notice that the recipient must appear before a district court judge to contest a complaint about a “forcible entry and detainer.”
Butler’s bill would mandate that the notice also include the following language:
EVICTION NOTICE. You are being sued for eviction. At the eviction hearing, the judge will determine if the landlord is entitled to possession of your rental unit. If the landlord is granted possession of the rental unit, then you will have at least seven days from the date of the judgment to move out or appeal the eviction. If you move out by the date ordered by the court and leave personal property behind, the landlord may dispose of such abandoned property without further notice. If you do not move out by the date and time ordered by the court, the landlord may have you removed by law enforcement and the landlord may remove any personal property remaining on the premises to the curb or an area designated for garbage. The landlord will have no obligation to preserve the personal property upon removal.
The bill additionally would introduce language specifying how officers would carry out writs of possession and granting them civil immunity for all damages to personal property or tenants caused by executing those writs.
Landlords and property owners would also be given full civil immunity from any suits over liability for “damages to the defendant or the defendant’s property resulting from the execution of a writ.” This would strongly limit tenants’ ability to sue over damages to their property or themselves incurred in the course of an eviction.
That part of HB80 also specifies that an officer would tell the tenant to vacate the premises, “keep the peace” while locks are changed and personal property is removed, and “physically remove” individuals on the property in question who do not comply with the writ.
Officers would be explicitly permitted to “use reasonable force in executing a writ under this section.”
If passed by the state legislature and signed by Governor Kay Ivey in its current form, HB80 would go into effect on June 1, 2026.
