If they are on a month-to-month lease, can you serve them notice? That is how I have been able to "evict" residents. Follow the policy that your lease states (60-day notice) and serve. If they do not move out by that point, you can sue.

We have had luck with eviction for reasons other than rent, failure to keep renters insurance current is a violation of our lease, or non renewing and filing when they stay over notice date.

I think enforcing the non-renewal depends on the local landlord-tenant laws and the judge assigned to the case.

We are lucky to own in landlord-friendly (though questionable sometimes) states and since we have a major renovation project going on, we issue a non-renewal so that we can upgrade the units.

It seems as this is a common problem. I don't understand why they were not put out when their lease was up. Did you post the proper 60 notice of non-renewal? I had the same issue and I hooked the tenant up with Rapid Rehousing. The salvation Army handles this here in Broward County Florida, through an agency called Care Resource. This program is available in every state. I am sure that if you called them, they would assist the tenant you want out and then you can re-let the unit.

It's hard to help without knowing the state you reside, but do you have the option to evict in another court? Here in Texas (Harris County) we have a few JP's in each district, so when I didn't like one, I moved to the other...

Have any of our lawyers ever thought to file complaints with the BAR associations? I wonder if that's a way to get rid of some of these activist judges?

We don't renew a lease if there is money owed and that was the rule even BEFORE the pandemic. As you can imagine, we have quite a few under non-renewal.