Outline of the eviction process in Nebraska

Residential evictions in Nebraska run under the Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act (Neb. Rev. Stat. §§ 76-1401 to 76-1449). The case is an action for possession, started with a complaint for restitution in the county or district court where the dwelling is located (§§ 76-1409, 76-1440, 76-1441). Trial is set 10 to 14 days after the summons issues, and the writ of restitution sets a move-out date no more than 10 days after it issues (§ 76-1446).

What is distinctive: the nonpayment notice is seven calendar days (set by a 2019 amendment; older forms with a shorter period are wrong), a lease-violation notice is a 14-day cure inside a 30-day termination, and there is a five-day no-cure notice for violent or drug activity. Nebraska has no just-cause requirement, and a 2025 law bars local rent control (§ 13-331). Record sealing and jury trial bills have failed, and the Nebraska Supreme Court has left open whether the Act’s bench-trial rule is constitutional.

1. Grounds

• Unpaid rent. If rent is unpaid when due and the tenant does not pay within seven calendar days after written notice, the landlord may terminate the rental agreement (§ 76-1431(2)).
• Material lease violation, or a violation of the tenant’s maintenance duties in § 76-1421 that materially affects health and safety (§ 76-1431(1)).
• Violent criminal activity, illegal sale of a controlled substance, or other activity on the premises that threatens the health or safety of other tenants, the landlord, or the landlord’s employees or agents, by the tenant, a household member, a guest or another person there with the tenant’s consent (§ 76-1431(4)).
• End of the tenancy. A tenant who stays without the landlord’s consent after the term expires or after the tenancy is terminated is a holdover, and the landlord may sue for possession (§ 76-1437(3)). No reason is needed to end a periodic tenancy, but retaliation is a defense: a landlord may not bring or threaten a possession action because the tenant complained to a code enforcement agency about a health and safety violation or joined a tenants’ organization, unless the tenant is in default in rent (§ 76-1439).

The Act excludes transient hotel or motel stays, employee housing conditioned on employment, and several other arrangements (§ 76-1408). Those cases use the general forcible entry and detainer procedure (the Nebraska Judicial Branch cites a three-day notice under § 25-21,221) and are not covered here.

2. Notices

• Nonpayment: seven calendar days. The written notice must state the nonpayment and the landlord’s intention to terminate the rental agreement if the rent is not paid within that period (§ 76-1431(2)).
• Lease violation: 14 days to cure, 30 days to terminate. The notice must specify the acts and omissions constituting the breach and state that the rental agreement will terminate on a date not less than 30 days after receipt of the notice if the breach is not remedied in 14 days. An adequate cure stops the termination (§ 76-1431(1)).
• Repeat violation: 14 days, no cure. If substantially the same act or omission recurs within six months of a prior noticed violation, the landlord may terminate on at least 14 days’ written notice specifying the breach and the termination date (§ 76-1431(1)).
• Violent or drug activity: five days, no cure (§ 76-1431(4)). It is unavailable when the activity was by someone outside the household and the tenant or a household member has sought a protective order against that person, reported the activity to law enforcement, or, for domestic violence, obtained a qualified third-party certification (§ 76-1431(5)).
• Month-to-month: 30 days before the periodic rental date named in the notice. Week-to-week: seven days before the termination date (§ 76-1437(1), (2)).
• Federally backed or subsidized properties may also be subject to the federal CARES Act 30-day notice to vacate; confirm before filing on a covered property.

How notices are delivered. Under § 76-1413(2)(c), a tenant receives a notice when it is delivered in hand to the tenant, mailed to the place the tenant has held out for receiving communications or, if none, to the tenant’s last-known residence, or delivered by electronic means. Posting on the door is not one of the listed methods, so do not rely on posting alone. Electronic delivery requires the tenant’s affirmative consent after the disclosures in § 76-1413(7), consent may not be made a condition of the lease (§ 76-1413(9)), and the landlord must use another method if there is reason to believe the notice was not received (§ 76-1413(15)).

Counting days. The nonpayment period is calendar days. Nebraska’s general rule for court deadlines excludes the day of the triggering event and includes the last day unless it is a Saturday, Sunday or court holiday (§ 25-2221). Count notice periods the same way and do not file early.

Waiver. Accepting rent with knowledge of a default waives the right to terminate for that breach unless otherwise agreed after the breach (§ 76-1433).

3. Filing

File a complaint for restitution with the clerk of the county or district court (§ 76-1441). It must contain the specific statutory authority under which possession is sought, the facts with particularity, a reasonably accurate description of the premises, and the required compliance with the Act’s notice provisions. A complaint under the five-day ground must describe the incident or incidents (§ 76-1441(2)). Other claims, such as unpaid rent, may be joined but are tried separately if either party asks in writing.

Entity landlords need a lawyer. The Nebraska Judicial Branch states that, except in Small Claims Court, a landlord that is a corporation or LLC cannot represent itself and must be represented by an attorney.

4. Summons, service and trial

The summons issues with the complaint attached and states the time and place of trial, which must be 10 to 14 days after the summons is issued (§§ 76-1442, 76-1446). It must be served within three days of issuance, excluding nonjudicial days, and returned within five. The server files an affidavit of service.

• Posting and mailing is a fallback only. If diligent efforts at ordinary service fail, the summons may be posted on the front door of the dwelling unit and mailed by first-class mail to the last-known address, with an affidavit of the efforts made and why they failed (§ 76-1442.01). If you serve this way, the court cannot enter a money judgment (§ 76-1446).
• The tenant’s response. On or before the appearance date the tenant may appear and assert any legal or equitable defense, setoff or counterclaim (§ 76-1445). If a served tenant does not appear, the court still tries the case (§ 76-1444), so bring your proof.
• Counterclaims. In a nonpayment case the tenant may counterclaim for amounts owed under the lease or the Act, the court may order rent paid into court, and if no rent remains due after the offset, the tenant wins possession (§ 76-1428).
• Continuances. The court may grant a first continuance to either party for good cause. A later continuance requires agreement or extraordinary cause. For a later continuance that extends the initial trial date into the next rental period, the court may require the tenant to deposit accruing rent with the clerk (§ 76-1443).
• No jury, by statute. § 76-1446 says the case is tried by the court without a jury.

5. Judgment and appeal

If the landlord wins, the court declares the rental agreement forfeited and, at the landlord’s request, issues a writ of restitution (§ 76-1446). For a willful, bad-faith holdover the landlord may also recover up to three months’ periodic rent or threefold actual damages, whichever is greater, plus reasonable attorney’s fees (§ 76-1437(3)). We found no provision in the Act giving the tenant a right to pay and stay once the seven-day period has run.

Either party may appeal as in other civil actions (§ 76-1447). An appeal from county court is perfected by filing a notice of appeal and depositing the docket fee within 30 days after the judgment (§ 25-2729(1)). A tenant’s appeal stays the writ only so long as the tenant deposits the amount of the judgment and costs or gives an appeal bond with surety, and then pays into court each month an amount equal to the monthly rent under the rental agreement (§ 76-1447).

6. The writ and the lockout

The writ directs the constable or sheriff to restore possession on a specified date not more than 10 days after the writ is issued (§ 76-1446).

Tenant property. The landlord must follow the Disposition of Personal Property Landlord and Tenant Act for anything left behind (§ 76-1446). Give written notice to the tenant, and to anyone else you reasonably believe owns the property, describing it and stating where to claim it, that reasonable storage costs may be charged, and a claim date not less than seven days after personal delivery or 14 days after mailing. Deliver it personally or by first-class mail to the last-known address (§ 69-2303). Unclaimed property must be sold at a public sale advertised once a week for two consecutive weeks, unless you reasonably believe its total resale value is under $2,000, in which case you may keep or dispose of it (§ 69-2308).

Self-help is prohibited. A landlord may not recover possession by lockout or by cutting off electric, gas, water or other essential service, except in case of abandonment or surrender or as the Act permits (§ 76-1436). The tenant’s remedy is possession or termination plus three months’ periodic rent as liquidated damages and a reasonable attorney’s fee (§ 76-1430).

Recent law changes landlords should know

• Electronic notices (LB 185, approved April 7, 2025). § 76-1413 now sets a consent framework for delivering notices and documents electronically, with September 3, 2025 as the changeover date.
• No local rent control (LB 266, approved April 7, 2025, codified at § 13-331). A city, village or county may not enact or enforce an ordinance that has the effect of imposing rent controls on private property, with exceptions for land-use or inclusionary housing requirements and for voluntary contractual programs.
• Abandoned property act amended (LB 834, effective July 18, 2026). §§ 69-2303 and 69-2308 were amended; the Legislature’s session review says the bill added mobile homes to that act.
• Record sealing: not enacted. The Residential Tenant Clean Slate Act failed on a cloture vote in March 2024 (LB 175) and was indefinitely postponed on April 17, 2026 (LB 92). The Act has no sealing provision.
• Jury trial: open question. In NP Dodge Management Co. v. Holcomb, 314 Neb. 748 (2023), the Nebraska Supreme Court dismissed the appeal as moot and did not decide whether the bench-trial requirement in § 76-1446 violates the state constitution. A three-justice concurrence called the constitutionality of the provision an open question. The court again dismissed residential eviction appeals as moot without deciding the point in 2024 (Johnson v. Vosberg, 316 Neb. 658; MIMG LXXIV Colonial v. Ellis, 316 Neb. 746). LB 101, which would have created a jury trial right under the Act, was indefinitely postponed on April 17, 2026, and § 76-1446 has not been amended since 2016. Expect represented tenants to demand a jury.
• Right to counsel: the Act contains no right to appointed counsel for tenants. In practice, the Nebraska State Bar Association’s Volunteer Lawyers Project describes its Tenant Assistance Project as providing free lawyers to unrepresented low-income tenants at eviction hearings in the Douglas and Lancaster County courthouses.

What actually goes wrong

• Using a pre-2019 nonpayment form with a period shorter than seven calendar days, or a notice that does not state the intention to terminate.
• A lease-violation notice that gives 14 days and no termination date at least 30 days after receipt.
• Posting a pre-suit notice on the door and nothing more (§ 76-1413).
• Accepting rent after the notice with knowledge of the default, which can waive the termination for that breach unless otherwise agreed after the breach (§ 76-1433).
• Expecting a money judgment after posted service, or posting without the diligent-efforts affidavit.
• An LLC or corporation appearing through a manager instead of an attorney, or changing locks before the officer executes the writ.

When to bring in an attorney

An individual owner can often handle an uncontested nonpayment case. Use counsel whenever the owner is an entity, for the five-day ground, for subsidized housing, when the tenant has a lawyer, counterclaims or demands a jury, and for any appeal. The Nebraska attorneys listed below represent landlords in the county courts.

Sources

• Neb. Rev. Stat. §§ 76-1408, 76-1409, 76-1413, 76-1428, 76-1430, 76-1431, 76-1433, 76-1436, 76-1437, 76-1439 to 76-1447 and § 13-331, with source lines (nebraskalegislature.gov).
• Neb. Rev. Stat. §§ 69-2303, 69-2308 (as amended by Laws 2026, LB 834); §§ 25-2221, 25-2729.
• Laws 2025, LB 185 and LB 266 (slip laws); bill histories for LB 92 and LB 101 (2025 to 2026) and LB 175 (2023 to 2024); Nebraska Examiner report on the LB 175 cloture vote (March 7, 2024); Unicameral Update, 2026 Session Review: Judiciary.
• NP Dodge Management Co. v. Holcomb, 314 Neb. 748 (2023); Johnson v. Vosberg, 316 Neb. 658 (2024); MIMG LXXIV Colonial v. Ellis, 316 Neb. 746 (2024).
• Nebraska Judicial Branch, Self-Help: Landlord page; NSBA Volunteer Lawyers Project, Tenant Assistance Project page.

This guide is general information about Nebraska procedure and is not legal advice. Confirm the current statute text before relying on any deadline.