An eviction entails going through the following steps as
outlined below:
1. Issuing of the eviction notice to the tenant
2. The tenant talking to the landlord
3. The tenant receiving eviction papers from the court
4. The tenant answering the eviction case
5. The eviction hearing.
The first step is that of the landlord giving the tenant a written
eviction notice to vacate the rented premises. The reasons for
the said eviction should be legit reasons that the tenant has
failed to comply with as required by the lease/rent agreement.
A landlord is not required to have reasons for the eviction of a
client which are discriminatory in nature, they should not
discriminate in terms of the race, gender or economic status.
The second step involves the tenant talking to the landlord. The
discussions will revolve around the settlement of the dispute
and a tenant can be granted more time if the landlord agrees to
that. The tenant can be pardoned if he/she agrees to mend the
error done with respect to the lease/rent agreement, and thus
the eviction lawsuit won’t be filed by the landlord. The results
of the discussion that is what you have agreed on should be put
in writing and both the landlord as well as the client should
append their signatures at the end of it. An agreement form can
be used to end an eviction move and it should be signed by
both parties to hold off an eviction and this should be in
writing.
The third step in the eviction process involves the tenant
receiving the eviction suit papers from court. The landlord
normally files an eviction lawsuit with the J.P. courts and either
a constable or a sheriff will need to hand deliver the eviction
suit papers to the tenant. The tenant may then decide to fight
the eviction lawsuit as it will be a permanent court record that
would most likely be a setback in his/her search for rental
houses/property in future. In case of lawsuits that have bond
possessions, the court may give the landlord possession rights
to the property if the tenant that not ask for trial in time.
The 4 step in the eviction process entails the tenant
answering the eviction lawsuit. The eviction suit papers that the
tenant will receive specify the date when he/she is supposed to
appear in court. Depending on the state laws a tenant can
choose to answer the suit before the specified hearing date and
this can be in person, by writing or he/she can even make a
call. After this the court will then give the tenant and the
landlord the hearing date of the eviction lawsuit. The citation
page of the eviction suit will specify the time and date that the
hearing will be held and both the tenant and the landlord need
to be clear and stick to it. In a case of Bond of Possession
lawsuit the tenant is supposed to demand for trial within the
first 6 days, failure to which the landlord will assume automatic
possession of the rented premises.
The last step in the eviction process is that of the hearing of the
lawsuit in the J.P. court. The tenant will have to give his/her
side of the story by use of any evidence in his/her possession
that will prove to be useful and acceptable to the J.P court. The
tenant is only allowed to use the help of live witnesses to
support his/her allegations. A subpoena can alternatively be
used to testify for the tenant. After that the judge will give a
final ruling after hearing the eviction lawsuit. If it’s in favor of
the landlord, the tenant will be given a period of five days to
appeal the decision or he/she may decide to move out of the
property. In case the tenant wins the case the landlord will also
be given a period of five days to appeal the decision of the
court.
Having looked at the eviction process from issuance of the
eviction notice to the final hearing, we will now briefly look at
some of the documents and their formats. For the documents go to Legal Drafting section.
