What I Do When a Non-Paying Tenant Still Has My WiFi During an Eviction

I had a tenant once who was four months behind. Eviction was filed — that's the formal court case to remove a tenant — and the court date was six weeks out. Every night I drove by and saw their porch light on. The WiFi router in the basement was still blinking. They owed me rent, but they were still paying the separate thirty-five-dollar internet fee I'd added to their lease. I called my attorney and asked if I could cut it off. He said yes, in our jurisdiction, as long as it wasn't written into the base rent.

WiFi is not a utility

That's the key distinction. WiFi, cable, even a parking spot you rent separately are not essential utilities. Essential utilities are water, gas, electricity, and sometimes heat, depending on your local housing code. Those keep a unit habitable. Cutting those during an eviction is illegal self-help in most places and can get you sued. Optional services you add on for a fee are a different animal.

Self-help means taking back the property or cutting essential services without a court order, like changing locks, removing doors, shutting off power, or turning off the water. Cutting optional WiFi doesn't usually fall into that bucket because the tenant can still live there safely. I'm not a lawyer, and your local rules might be stricter, so call your own attorney or a landlord association before you touch anything. But if the service is on a separate line item in the lease, and you're the one paying the provider, I'd cancel it. The tenant loses a convenience. They can still live there.

I did exactly that. Canceled the account. Three days later the tenant called me, yelling. That call broke the silence. Once they were on the phone, we talked. Two weeks later they moved out voluntarily before the court date. I'm not saying WiFi will always flush them out, but cutting that small monthly amenity sometimes pushes a non-paying tenant to finally engage. They realize the free ride is ending.

Partial payments reset the clock

But there's a dangerous trap waiting if you're not careful: partial payments. The moment you accept even five dollars from a tenant after you've filed for eviction, you can reset the entire timeline in many states. A partial payment can be construed as you accepting rent for a new period, which waives the eviction notice. I learned this the hard way early on. A tenant handed me a hundred bucks "to hold them over." I took it. My eviction got dismissed because the judge said I'd accepted rent after the notice. I had to start over from scratch.

So now I refuse all partial payments. If a tenant tries to hand me cash, a money order, or sends a partial payment through a payment app, I send it back with a letter stating I'm rejecting it because an eviction is pending. If they want to cure the full arrears plus court costs and late fees, I'll talk to my attorney about accepting that in a way that doesn't hurt my case. But partial? Never. That's the single most common mistake I see new landlords make while waiting for a court date.

What else I do while waiting

While the eviction crawls forward, here's what else I do. I keep the property maintained. I still mow the lawn, fix the heat if it breaks, and respond to genuine emergencies. That protects me from a counterclaim for uninhabitable conditions. I document everything: every text message and email. I take photos of the exterior every week. I don't change locks or remove the tenant's belongings. I don't shut off the water, either. Those are self-help and they'll cost you the case.

I also keep my mouth shut about the tenant to anyone except my attorney. Telling neighbors or posting online can trigger a harassment claim. The eviction process is slow and expensive. But cutting optional WiFi is a small, legal lever in many places, and refusing partial payments keeps your case alive. The court will eventually give you the only remedy that matters: possession of your property back.