My friend is being evicted from his rental house. He has not paid the rent and really has no defense.

The landlord has given him the 7 day pay or quit notice, which he could not pay. And now he has been served with a summons to appear before in court, which we know he will lose the case and be ordered to surrender the property in probably 5 days or less (this is VA).

The question is... he is starting a new job on the same day as the court date (he's been unemployed for over 9 months) and would like to just move his stuff out and not attend the hearing where he know what is going to happen anyway.

Is that OK to do? Can he be arrested for that, or will they just issue a judgement in his absence and if he turns over the keys to property to the owner before the courtdate, and explains that he is starting a new job, will that be cool?

Any advice you can give would be helpful!

Thanks,

Dona

You are correct that if he just doesn't show up for court a judgement will be entered against him. The judgement will likely by a ruling that he is being evicted and has XXX days to be out or the landlord can pay the sherrif (or whoever performs evictions locally) to forcibly remove him and his belongings from the property. I would also expect the judgement to include any rent he owes plus court costs plus interest.

If he can settle with the landlord prior to the court date - whatever terms they agree on - that's fine, but he needs to make sure that the landlord notifies the court that they have settled and he's dropping the case. As a landlord, I'd probably just go through with the suit at this point so I could get the judgement, since the tenant obviously doesn't have the money ready to pay what he owes.

Does that help?

Yes! That helps. My only concern was making sure he could be arrested for not showing up.

Since he's going to have to pay whatever the judgement is anyway and has no defense, we thought starting the new job was more important.

Right?

Thanks!

Hello d:

It's not so cut and dried as you might think. There will be a judgment entered including past due rent and late charges. However, do you trust your landlord to tell the truth about how much he owes? I don't. Plus, there could be some wiggle room as far as when the sheriff might show up.

If your friend doesn't show up, the landlord will win everything the landlord wants.

excon

Your friend should MOVE out, CLEAN the unit and RETURN THE KEYS to the landlord... THEN attend court and indicate that he is out of the unit so that POSSESSION is no longer an issue so that he does NOT have a UD on his record,,

Not showing up offers the landlord the right to get a default judgement against him.

Thanks so much for all your advice!!

This board is so helpful.

I'll let you know how it turns out!