Tenant Wins Eviction?

Question

Under what circumstances would an evictions court side with the tenant? Seems pretty black and white to me. You either paid or didn't pay.

John Underwood · Answer

From my experience I have never had a tenant win an eviction hearing, most don't even show up.

Karl B. · Answer

The only exception I can think off offhand (and I'm sure there are other examples) would be a landlord doesn't fix something that should be fixed (non-working furnace), the tenant pays to have the repair done, subtracts the repair amount from the rent check and the landlord demands full rent claiming he didn't OK the repair or repair cost.

Totally hypothetical but I can see the judge siding with the tenant (as long as the repair bill is realistic) as a heated home during the winter is a basic human need.

Or perhaps the landlord doesn't fill the paperwork out correctly or botches something during the process and the judge sides with the tenant and the landlord has to resubmit paperwork - I can see that happening too.

These are random hypotheticals, of course.

Nathan Gesner · Answer

@Ben Rahlf the tenant can win if the Landlord screws up the paperwork. You can be 100% right and you can take all the proper steps for eviction, but fail to have a signature on a form or put the wrong dates in or whatever. I've seen and heard of judges throwing cases out simply because the Landlord failed to follow the process exactly.

Our justice system puts ridiculous burdens on the victim. All I can recommend is that you use an attorney unless you know what you're doing or are willing to take the chance. I've done all my evictions and never lost one but I came close to losing one because I failed to sign a form, even though the tenant signed and acknowledged receipt. I only won because the tenant failed to show up in court.

Ray Paulk · Answer

You guys are right, most tenants fail to showup to an eviction case. But this also opens a doorway for any landlord that has just lost thousands of dollars on a bad tenant to submit their awarded eviction case to the Tenant Screening Bureau. And If your mad at your tenant post a review their. At least this will warn other landlords not to rent to that crummy tenant.

Toby Chandler · Answer

I saw a judge in Spartanburg SC find for the tenant and not order the eviction once when the tenant had a receipt where they bought a money order. The PM literally told the judge "he could've given that to his crack dealer". The PM had to start over. All of the property managers in there were furious, it was the wrong decision,  but it happened.

Hubert Kim · Answer

All of the above!

I will add that sometimes the tenant is not trying to win at all. Rather, just buying time and hoping that:

• the landlord does not pursue eviction aggressively
• the landlord will make mistakes in the process
• attorneys cost money that the landlord does not to spend
• the courts are backlogged with cases
• the tenant himself/herself will be able to cause delays in the process
• even after eviction and judgement, collection will be very difficult if possible

Dennis M. · Answer

If the landlord refuses to give the security deposit back without cause the tenant can win . In a straightforward eviction it’s pretty cut and dry unless as Karl said , there was a major system repair that was ignored by the owner

Tenant Wins Eviction?

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