Eviction Update

After much anticipation, I finally secured the judgement for possession and the money judgement! It took three court appearances and $450 in legal fees to win this case.

Here is how it went down:

When I walked into the court house, to my horror, the tenant and kids were already there. Why would they not bother to show up for the first two rounds and come for #3? It is like she knew I filled out the paperwork wrong the first two times! Funny.

I was prepared for defeat as soon as I saw her there. I just figured the judge would pull something out of his ass and find a way to feel sorry for her position. But to his credit, I filled out all the paperwork this time properly, and he was obligated to follow the law. He even referenced that making these sort of judgements is the hardest part of his job.

To the credit of my tenant, she didn't put up a fight and make up a lie about me that would make the judge postpone the case or anything. She owned up to her mistakes. She admitted she was behind in payments and things were tough for them, and they were trying to get assistance from different agencies, etc. After this testimony the judge gave a long lecture about how the assistance programs work and how they are very difficult to work with. He took his time explaining the rules and even told her she and her family would be in his thoughts and prayers!

The most ironic part of the whole case had to do with the money judgement. As you may recall, the reason the first two cases were thrown out had to do with the amount of money I was requesting on the paperwork. So when he was filling out the judgement paperwork he took the liberty to add in the month of November (the court date was Nov 2) which is exactly why the case was dismissed in round two (asking for the month of November when it was still September).

In closing, she has until November 14 to vacate the property, unless she can come up with $3,600 (july - nov rent plus $152 in court costs). I suspect there is a zero chance they will come up with anything, so they are toast.

I will need to go to the house on Nov 14 to see if they are still there. If they are, then I need to go down to the courthouse and file a writ and pay a small fee and the sheriff will throw their shit in the street.

Case closed.