What are some of the most successful things I can bring up in court to influence a judge to allow me to evict a tenant? Thank you.

Larry, I am not talking about making things up,

There are over dozen legitimate issues. I just dont want to bore the judge.

On the other hand, will a judge let me have all the time i need to prioritize and make my case in my own way?

Polly,

Seriously, you need to have your case ready when you get to court. I doubt the judge will give you time to put it in order during court. If you. Have more than a dozen things that warrant eviction name them all. Before you file to go to court make sure you give the tenant all notices according to the law and your lease. I'm sure you will do fine.

Consult an experienced landlord or an eviction attorney. And if you did not this time next time do background checks and credit checks on applicants and you shouldn't have these problems... good luck!

One time in court a tenant, who just passed the Bar exam to become an attorney, had a dozen excuses why not to pay his rent. For example:

a) the landlord thinks he's a handyman and is too chap to hire qualified repairmen, so nothing gets fixed on time or correctly.

So I showed the judge my Contractor's licences showing that I'm a general contractor, plumber, electrician, locksmith and so on. Also I had a list of my licensed painters, flooring contractors, etc. I have the best people to help me maintain my buildings and I'm qualified to do the work myself. This shot down my tenants claims.

b) my tenant claimed he tried to pay me the rent but I refused to accept his personal check, that I wanted only "Cash".

So I had copies of my tenants rental payments over the last 3 years. Some were personal checks, others were transfers to my buildings checking account and another method was payment to my paypal account. I had proof I still have those active accounts and they tenant could have deposited his rent into my bank account and or paypal account. This shot down my tenants theory that I refused payment.

c) The tenant claimed I entered his apartment weekly without permission and went through his belongings.

I had two of my other tenants show up with me in court. One was an actress on a weekly TV series who used the roof to sunbath to keep her tan for her series. Anytime I wanted to go on the roof I'd call her up when her car was in her parking spot to ensure she wasn't on the roof. My other tenant, a retired city employee told the judge that he's always home and anytime I've come to the property I have already contacted tenants requesting permission to enter their units, to make agreed upon repairs. That I never went into his unit without notice or putting an emergency not on his front door.

Best eviction arguments:

The ones that are: 1) according to the law which authorizes eviction; 2) provable beyond any defense that the tenant can raise; 3) fairly and honestly presented.

Some examples:

1. Argument: tenant didn't pay rent when required;

Defense: But I did pay the rent;

Impeachment: Please show a copy of your cancelled check.

2. Argument: tenant won't allow landlord to enter to make repairs, after repeated notice of failure to comply with relevant lease clause and/or state law.

Defense 1; I never received any such notice;

Impeachment: Declaration of Service signed by Deputy Sheriff.

Defense 2: I never refused landlord to enter.

Impeachment: personal testimony to the contrary by a Rabbi, a Priest and a Minister.

Defense 3: Notice was not timely.

Impeachment: Declaration of Service signed by Deputy Sheriff specifying date and time of service which is earlier than 24 hours (or whatever notice period applies in location).

Defense 4: Notice did not specify reason for entry, showing that reason for entry was one of those authorized by local law.

Impeachment: More difficult; Sheriff's declaration should include copy of notice attached which hopefully contains authorized reason for entry.

You see how it goes. You need a MATERIAL reason which authorizes eviction, plus proof that it occurred.

Moshe,

I like the argument about the Rabbi, Priest and Minister.

One time a Rabbi, a Priest and a Minister were discussing "when life begins".

Priest: At the moment of conception.

Minister: No, at the moment of birth.

They looked at the Rabbi, who was grinning and asked: what do you think?

Back to the subject matter:

Your best argument is Non payment of rent. You must show a copy of your 3 day notice with proof of delivery/presentation, paste and mail. The notice has to be filled out correctly, or the judge will throw it out.

In my city, once the tenant gets a 3 day notice, the LL doesn't have to accept rent or partial rent, and can choose eviction instead.

HMMMM......

So are we to assume that a judge will NOT ordinarily allow a landlord to read from his long list of issues he really had with a tenant?

Your easiest & most successful is for non payment which requires that you are able to prove they received the correct 14 day notice, that for any monies received after the 14 day the tenant received receipt for U&O only and they received a proper summons to appear in court.

Next would be for drug or other criminal behavior. This requires a lot of proof.

Then comes violations of the rental agreement. These would have to be violations of specific items in their rental agreement. You will need proof that they actually violated the agreement and that they were given written notice to cure.

You could evict for procession which does not require much proof other than being able to prove that you gave them proper notice in accordance with the terms of the rental agreement. Judges tend to listen to the tenants sob stories & give them additional time to move.

If this is your first eviction, for your best chance at being successful, I highly recommend working with a lawyer. At the very least you should visit the court a session or two ahead of your court date to observe how things work.

When you do get to court dress professionally, have your papers organized, bring a copy for the court as well as one for the tenants, speak only to the judge never directly to the tenants, know exactly what you want and be prepared to compromise. In MA if you go to Housing Court you & the tenant will be required to meet with a mediator. I find that most times we can come to a reasonable agreement with the mediator's help. However if you're not satisfied with the outcome during the mediated meeting then you still have the right to present your case before the judge in open court.

Forgot to add no the judge will not "let me have all the time i need to prioritize and make my case in my own way".

When you represent yourself most judge will give you a little leeway but not much. They have other cases & expect you to be prepared.

What to bring? Lets see -- make sure your atty has the lease with him. Listen its all well and good you do the prelim work-- got it. When going to the trail get an atty-- the one who represents all the apt complexes in your area. Sit in on a hearing and you'll see who she or he is. Our guy charges 75.00.

Hi Poily/Polly,

First, a shout-out to fred for the Priest, Minister, and Rabbi joke. I had the same thought when I read that phrase...!

Back to the topic. I assume this is your first time evicting. Don't worry. The first thing you'll learn is that 70% of the time, if your case is legit, the tenant won't even show up. If they haven't paid the rent, they know it, and they know it'll be a waste of time. It blew my mind the first 4 eviction hearings I went to. Only 1 time did the tenant show up, and basically agree they hadn't paid the rent. They did try to argue, but the judge was firm. Unpaid rent = eviction.

If your judge is competent, he/she will have heard every "story" under the sun for why a tenant didn't do what they were supposed to do and will reject them all as immaterial.

So the best thing to do is bring a copy of your rent ledger showing what was due and what has not been paid. To keep it simple, I bring the last 12 months, or less if the lease hasn't run a year yet.

I also have a copy of my lease.

" are we to assume that a judge will NOT ordinarily allow a landlord to read from his long list of issues he really had with a tenant? "

It is not a case that a judge will not allow. It is a case that courts are crowded, judge will allocate only a short time to each case and you should make good use of your alloted time.

Keep in mind that you only need ONE appropriate and proven reason to evict. The judge will want to get right to the point, and to evaluate proof of the reason. He will make his judgement and go on to the next case. Thus, DO NOT give a list of reason, give ONE GOOD (legal) reason and get right to your proof.

Poily, go to your eviction court BEFORE your hearing date. Call the clerk to ask when evictions are heard, and go watch. This will let you know how much time the judge allows each case, will let you observe the judge's temperament and how he runs his court.

Eviction is not like TV shows, tune in next week for the next chapter... Unpaid damages and rent are prolly 97 percent of why an eviction is filed, stick to facts, rent was paid on time for 5 months and then we allowed it late once on the 5th but now there is no payment so we must get the tenant out and start with a new one after making repairs to walls, broken windows, doors smashed at the old tenant expense.

So once again, should I read a paragraph or two focusing on my major concerns? Or must I memorize them?

Thanks to all!!!

Prepare a statement, but make in your own, casual words, direct and to the point, and read it over a few times, but not to memorize word-for-word.

Then, prepare an outline of the points that you want to make, first the reason (legal reason) why an eviction should be granted and the law that authorizes eviction for that reason, and then a logical specification of your proof.

Then, go into court and tell the judge, in your own casual words, what the tenant did, and what your proof is. That way, you won't sound rehearsed, your prepared statement will readily supply phrases in your own language, and you will make your arguments in your own casual way, but getting everything in.

I give lectures this way, one next month to our local university on the current status of Israel-Palestine negotiations as orchestrated by President Trump. I use a PowerPoint presentation with just an outline (with hyperlinks to important documents and videos). The outline bullets prompt me about what I want to discuss next, so that I don't leave out any important points, and everything gets presented in my pre-planned order. You could approach your problem also by making an outline to list what you want to discuss, but then giving your speech in a casual way.

Polly,

Mike45 beat me to it. Go observe some cases so you KNOW what your judge wants. This is too important to guess.

Judges HATE HATE HATE whining and "he said/she said" stuff.

Stick to the one point that wins: unpaid rent.

Judges are not likely to evict for smoking, parking incorrectly, not mowing, loud boyfriends, cursing... complaining about those things just annoys the judge.

I hand the judge s simple sheet showing what rent they owe, late fees, the date of their last payment, and a copy of the lease. Have a copy for the judge and the defendant plus your originals.

Done.

My tip O the day: Learn how long the judge normally gives and ask for that date on your paper. Don't leave it up in the air.

AND talk to the res and convince him it's better the agree to leave than to let the judge, a total stranger decide the fate of this family. The judge COULD tell him to be out tomorrow. Plus some renters hate court and will do anything to avoid appearing. Some will be arrested when they walk in the door.

BRAD

To Pollynewby and everyone else discussing this interesting topic:

Rather than taking up a busy judge's time hearing a Landlord orally recite his long list of complaints about his tenant, would there be any value in a LL just handing a judge such a list that said judge might read later?

my magistrates won't read anything later. Case is finished (unless an appeal filed) while we are all still in the room.

Don't lie. The judge hears lots of lies and he will know you too are lying. Once you lie everything you say afterwords is suspicious.

I would suggest:

stating a claim to the judge (like the tenant left the carpet dirt),and simultaneously submitting a picture of the dirty carpet.

Then, wait for the judge to look at it (that won't take long) and as soon as he raises his head, make your next claim, and simultaneously show the corresponding picture, ...

be BRIEF and ORGANIZED. 6 photos are better than 25.

dress accordingly...a shirt with a collar is MINIMUM. no shorts

learn to say "your honor, getting back to the matter at hand..." after the tenant blathers on about all manner of things

do not interrupt the other party...if they interrupt you, wait and ask the judge to ask them to refrain from doing so. ADDRESS ONLY the judge

AND AND AND

go watch some cases before yours. learn THAT JUDGES attitude and style.

if you will have ANY statements other than your own the person making them MUST be present. hearsay is b=never allowed