Obtaining a Judgment
After the tenant has been served with the summons and complaint for unlawful detainer, the defendant has either five or fifteen days to respond, depending on the type of service.
The Default Case
In the majority of cases, the tenant will not respond to the complaint, and after the time period for the response has expired, our office applies to the court for a default judgment. In effect, you have won the case by forfeit. On the morning of the first day following expiration of the response period, we will contact the court to find out whether or not your tenant has filed an answer. If not, we will immediately prepare the necessary documents, which we will send to the court the same day. The court clerk makes an entry into the official court record that the tenant had failed to respond.
In a default case, no appearance by you or the property manager is required. Our office will handle all the paperwork for you. The paperwork we are filing at this point is to request that the court issue a judgment for possession only as authorized by law. It generally takes one to two days to complete. You will not obtain a money judgment at this time. Once you have been restored to possession of the premises, our office is then able to go back, with a supplemental declaration in support of judgment, to obtain a judgment of rent that was due to the date of departure by the tenant, including costs and, in certain cases, attorneys fees. But this supplemental process is completed after the tenant has already been moved out by the Sheriff.