Raleigh, NC Rental Property Rules: Just Cause Eviction (2026)

§ 42-26. Tenant holding over may be dispossessed in certain cases.

(a) Any tenant or lessee of any house or land, and the assigns under the tenant or legal representatives of such tenant or lessee, who holds over and continues in the possession of the demised premises, or any part thereof, without the permission of the landlord, and after demand made for its surrender, may be removed from such premises in the manner hereinafter prescribed in any of the following cases:

(1) When a tenant in possession of real estate holds over after his term has expired.

(2) When the tenant or lessee, or other person under him, has done or omitted any act by which, according to the stipulations of the lease, his estate has ceased.

(3) When any tenant or lessee of lands or tenements, who is in arrear for rent or has agreed to cultivate the demised premises and to pay a part of the crop to be made thereon as rent, or who has given to the lessor a lien on such crop as a security for the rent, deserts the demised premises, and leaves them unoccupied and uncultivated.

(b) An arrearage in costs owed by a tenant for water or sewer services pursuant to G.S. 62-110(g) or electric service pursuant to G.S. 62-110(h) shall not be used as a basis for termination of a lease under this Chapter. Any payment to the landlord shall be applied first to the rent owed and then to charges for electric service, or water or sewer service, unless otherwise designated by the tenant.

(c) In an action for ejectment based upon G.S. 42-26(a)(2), the lease may provide that the landlord's acceptance of partial rent or partial housing subsidy payment does not waive the tenant's breach for which the right of reentry was reserved, and the landlord's exercise of such a provision does not constitute a violation of Chapter 75 of the General Statutes.