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What Are the Steps in an Eviction? (Overview of Eviction Process)

Introduction
Step 1: Eviction Notice
Step 2: Filing A Summons and Complaint
Step 3: Motion For Payment Of Rent Into Court (Rent Escrow)
Step 4: Motion For Summary Judgment
Step 5: Discovery
Step 6: Trial, Also Called A "Merits Hearing"
Step 7: The Courts Decision
Settling the Case and Preventing the Eviction
Really Important Things to Remember About All Evictions
Important Rules About Your Home's Condition and Withholding Rent
Where Can I Get Legal Help?
I Don't Have a Lawyer. Where Can I Get Help Filling out Forms to Respond to the Eviction?

Introduction
This is what happens during the process of eviction in Vermont, it provides information of how the court eviction process works so a tenant will have a better understanding of his/her rights and what to expect if a tenant is being evicted from a house, apartment, mobile home or motel that he/she rents from the owner of a rental unit.

The rules are different if the park owner is evicting you from a lot in a mobile home park. For more information about your rights as a mobile home park residents, CVOEO publishes Mobile Home Park Residents: A Guide To Your Rights .

IMPORTANT: A landlord may NEVER force a tenant to leave the apartment at any time in eviction process--such as: locking a tenant out, turning off heat, water or other utilities, or removing a tenants belongings. For information on what to do if this occurs or if a landlord threatens to take such action click here.

STEP ONE: Eviction Notice
To start any eviction, a landlord must give a written eviction notice to the tenant. This notice is often called a "Notice of Termination of Tenancy" or a "Notice to Quit." The type of notice the landlord is required to give a tenant depends upon the grounds for the eviction. These are the grounds to start a legal process of eviction:

Eviction for Nonpayment of Rent
If the landlord's reason for evicting the tenant is that the tenant has not paid some or all of the rent owed the eviction notice must be in writing. The date given in the notice to pay back rent or leave (the "termination date") must be at least 14 days from the date you receive the notice. The notice does not have to be served by a sheriff or other law enforcement officer.

Eviction For Criminal Activity
If the landlord's reason for evicting the tenant is that the tenant has engaged in criminal activity that affects the health or safety of other residents, the landlord must give the tenant notice in writing. The date to leave the premises given in the notice must be at least 14 days from the date you receive the notice. The notice does not have to be served by a sheriff or other law enforcement officer.

Eviction "For Cause"
Eviction for violating some other aspect of the lease agreement other than nonpayment of rent.
If the landlord's reason for evicting the tenant is that the tenant broke some other part of the rental agreement other then paying rent, the eviction notice may be sent by ordinary mail or hand delivered to the tenant. The notice must give the tenant at least 30 days notice from the date you receive it to the date you are asked to leave the premises.

Eviction for "No Cause"
If you do not have a written rental agreement with your landlord or you had one but it is now expired, your landlord can legally evict you for no reason at all. The eviction notice may be sent by ordinary mail or hand delivered to the tenant.

If rent is payable on a monthly basis and the tenant has resided on the premises for two years or less, the notice must give the tenant at least 60 days notice from the date it is received to the time that the letter tells the tenant to leave the premises.

If the tenant has resided at the premises continuously for longer than two years, the tenant is entitled to 90 days advance notice before the termination date. If rent is payable on a weekly basis the notice must provide the tenant with 21 days notice before the termination date.

Attention Burlington Tenants: Eviction for "No Cause"
If there is no written rental agreement, the tenant lives in Burlington and pays rent monthly, the tenant is entitled to more advance notice:

If the tenant has lived on the premises for two years or less, the landlord must give at least 90 days notice to evict for no cause.

If the tenant has lived in the same place continuously for more than two years, the landlord must give the tenant 120 days notice to evict for no cause.

The longer notice periods apply to Burlington tenants only.

STEP TWO: Filing A Summons and Complaint
If the date stated in the termination notice or notice to quit has passed, the landlord may file a Complaint for Eviction in Superior Court to evict a tenant. A Summons and Complaint asks the court for relief and hopes the court will order that the tenant leave. It may ask the court to order the tenant to pay back rent that the landlord believes he is owed.

A copy of the Summons and Complaint for Eviction must be "served" (delivered) to you by a sheriff, law enforcement officer or constable. A tenant must answer the Complaint in writing; within 20 days beginning the day after it was served by the Sheriff. A tenant answers by filing a written response to the complaint in the Superior Court where the landlord filed the Complaint.

IMPORTANT: It is extremely important to respond in writing before the deadline. If a tenant responds in time, he/she will have a chance to tell his/her side of the story to the court (facts and evidence that promotes the tenants right to a fair hearing). It also gives the tenant some time before the court decides a tenant must move out.

To go directly to the forms a tenant can fill in and file with the court to answer the Summons and Complaint, Click Here.

What Happens If A Tenant Does Not Answer the Complaint?
If the tenant fails to file a written response to the Complaint within the 20-day deadline, the court will "issue" (make) a "Default Judgment" which is a court decision that the tenant loses the entire case automatically because the he/she failed to respond in time.

Next, the landlord can receive a "Writ of Possession" from the court. "Writ of Possession" is a court order giving possession of the rental unit back to the landlord, with this court order the landlord can have a sheriff remove the tenant from the rental unit in as little as 5 days.

If you have already received a Default Judgment, you should talk to a lawyer as soon as possible. In some cases, you may still be able to stop the eviction.

STEP THREE: Motion for Payment Of Rent Into Court (Only if the tenant owes back rent!)
If a tenant owes the landlord back rent, the landlord may request that the court order the tenant pay to the court his/her future monthly rent as it comes due as well as any back rent due since the Summons and Complaint was served on the tenant. This is sometimes called Rent Escrow. The tenant will pay his/her rent to the court clerk's office each month. The court clerk will hold the rent money until the eviction case is decided.

When the case is over and the judge makes a decision about whether the tenant will be evicted, the judge will also decide how the rent money that the tenant paid to the court clerk will be distributed. A copy of the landlord's request (as stated above) must be sent to the tenant through regular mail by the landlord or his lawyer. The tenant will be notified by the court of a date and time of the hearing.

This is the hearing that decides if a tenant will have to pay his/her monthly rent to the court clerk. A tenant will likely be required to pay his/her future rent to the court, even if the tenant has been withholding rent for legal reasons. This hearing is only a hearing about whether the tenant has to pay rent to the clerk.

IT IS NOT a hearing which will decide if a tenant is to be evicted or who wins the case. At the end of the hearing, the court will make a decision about the rent. The court's order will most likely say that a tenant has to pay back rent due since the landlord served the complaint on the tenant and his/her full rent on the first day of each month to the court clerk until the case is over.

IF a tenant receives ReachUp and he/she cannot make the full rent payment on the first day of the month, the tenant can ask the court to allow him to pay half of the rent payment on the first day of the month and the other half on the sixteenth day of the month. In order for a tenant to be able to do this, he/she must file a written request for permission within 10 days from the day the tenant receives the landlord's Motion and send a copy to the landlord or his lawyer.

IF you don't owe your landlord any back rent but the landlord has asked that you be ordered to pay your rent into court anyway, you can probably prevent the court from ordering you to pay. But a tenant must file a written request to the Court within 10 days of receiving the motion and send a copy to the landlord or his lawyer.

Remember, if you haven't answered the complaint at the time of the rent escrow hearing, and if there is no default judgment against you, you can ask the judge for 10 more days to answer your landlord's complaint.

What happens if a tenant does not pay?
If a tenant is ordered to pay rent to the court clerk and he/she does not follow a court's written order exactly (e.g., tenant pays only part of the money on the day he/she is ordered, or tenant pays all of the money but he/she pays a day late), the landlord can get an immediate Writ of Possession to remove the tenant within as little as 5 business days. The court clerk does not have the authority to make special exceptions for anyone.

STEP FOUR (Not every tenant will get one of these): Motion For Summary Judgment
In some cases, a landlord may file a Motion for Summary Judgment after you have answered the Summons and Complaint. This document is a request by the landlord for the court to decide the case in the landlord's favor automatically, without ever hearing the facts of the tenants' case.

If a tenant wants a chance to tell his/her side of the story, the tenant must file a written response to a motion for Summary Judgment within 30 days, beginning the day after the tenant receives it. A tenant must send a copy of his/her response to the landlord and/or his/her lawyer.

Any tenant who receives a Motion for Summary Judgment should call Vermont Legal Aid right away for legal assistance.

What Happens If A Tenant Does Not Respond?
If a tenant does not respond to a Motion for Summary Judgment within the 30-day deadline, the court will decide that the landlord wins automatically and will give the landlord an immediate judgment in his/her favor for the amount of money the landlord says the tenant owes, along with the Writ of Possession allowing him to have the tenant be removed from his/her home by a Sheriff within 5 business days. If this happens, a tenant will not get to explain the facts of his/her case to the judge.

STEP FIVE: Discovery
In some cases, after the tenant has responded to the Summons and Complaint some landlords' lawyers send written questions about the case to the tenant asking for the tenant to answer them in writing within 30 days. The landlords' lawyer could also ask the tenant to answer questions under oath outside of Court. This process of asking for answers to questions is called "discovery." A tenant should contact Vermont Legal Aid for legal advice and assistance before answering these questions.

STEP SIX: Trial (Also Called A "Merits Hearing")
If a tenant files a written response to the Complaint and any other Motion sent or served to him/her within the deadline for responding, it may be several weeks before the court sets a date for trial on the eviction of a tenant (sometimes this is called a "Merits Hearing").

A tenant will receive written notice from the court stating the date and time of the trial. This date is when the court will decide if the tenant must move out and whether either the tenant or the landlord owes money to either party. This is the place where a tenant can explain his/her side of the story (facts of the tenant's case). A tenant may bring witnesses or evidence with him/her to help prove his/her case.

STEP SEVEN: The Court's Decision
After the court has heard both sides of the case (tenant and the landlords), the court will make a decision whether the tenant must leave their residence and if the tenant owes money to the landlord or whether the landlord money to the tenant. Usually the court will make its decision at that time. At times, the court will make a decision later and will mail its decision to both sides a short time after the hearing.

The court's final decision is called a "Judgment." If the court decides that a tenant must leave, the court will issue a "Writ of Possession" which is a court order which gives the landlord the right to ask the Sheriff to force the tenant out of his/her home. If a tenant is served with a Writ of Possession, the Sheriff will force the tenant out within 5 business days (not counting weekends and holidays), from the time he served the Writ of Possession to the tenant (as explained above).

Settling the Case and Preventing the Eviction
Sometimes it is possible to stop an eviction before it gets decided at trial by negotiating a settlement agreement (sometimes called a "stipulation") with the landlord.

An example of a settlement might be a repayment plan in which a tenant agrees to pay his/her monthly rent plus an extra sum of money every month to pay back rent owed to the landlord. In exchange, the landlord may sometimes lower the amount of money that you must pay back and drop the eviction case.

Another way to stop an eviction for nonpayment of rent from happening (even if the landlord still wants to evict the tenant) is for the tenant to pay all the money owed before a final judgment in the case. If the tenant pays to the court all the money owed for back rent, plus the filing fee for the eviction, and any fee the landlord paid the Sheriff to serve papers to the tenant, the tenant will be able to stop the eviction from going any further.

IMPORTANT: If a tenant is being evicted and he/she is trying to settle their case in one of these ways, a tenant should ask a lawyer for help before paying his/her money to anyone.

REALLY IMPORTANT THINGS TO REMEMBER ABOUT ALL EVICTIONS

1. Just about every court paper you receive from the landlord or his lawyer requires a written answer even if the papers themselves do not tell a tenant to answer.

2. Everything that requires a written answer or response has a time deadline which can be as short as 10 days or as long as 30 days, so it is very important to pay attention to deadlines and ask for legal help soon after a tenant receives papers. The papers themselves almost never tell a tenant that there is a time limit for answering even if there is deadline.

3. The worst thing you can do is ignore court papers. Even if a tenant is afraid of what may happen, it is far easier to prevent an eviction and for a tenant to hold onto his right to tell his/her side of the story if the tenant deals with it and calls for help immediately.

4. Evictions and legal rights are difficult to understand if a tenant does not have legal advice from an attorney. Not every tenant's situation is identical, and judges don't always decide eviction cases the same way even if the cases seem similar to one another. It is not possible to predict exactly what a judge will do about a specific case but legal advice can often inform a tenant of the likely outcome of his/her case. It is best for a tenant to explain his/her specific situation to an attorney instead of relying on something else a tenant may have heard about a eviction that is not his/her own eviction process.

A tenant should always seek legal advice for eviction process if she or he can.

Important Rules About Your Home's Condition and Withholding Rent:

The Landlords Obligation
Vermont law says that a landlord is required to keep the home or apartment in a condition that is "habitable" which means safe, clean and fit for human habitation, including adequate and reliable utility services, safe water, sewage disposal, etc.

The Tenant's Rights
If the landlord fails to comply with his duty of habitability, the first thing you must do is give the landlord "actual notice" of the problems. You should do this by sending the landlord a written notice of the problem and request that the landlord fix them. The landlord will be considered to have "actual notice" if he gets a written notice about the problem from a tenant. Notice from a governmental entity or a qualified independent inspector may also be considered actual notice, but the law is unclear on this point. To be sure, a tenant ought to give his or her own notice in writing.

If the owner has received actual notice and fails to make repairs within a reasonable time, and his doing this materially (seriously) affects health and safety, the tenant may do any of the following:

1. Withhold payment of rent during the period of noncompliance (after the owner has had a reasonable time to fix the problem and has not).

2. Obtain injunctive relief (get a court order forcing the owner to make the repairs).

3. Recover damages, costs and reasonable attorneys fees.

4. Terminate the rental agreement upon reasonable notice.

Anyone who is considering withholding rent should call Vermont Legal Aid for advice about his or her specific case before doing so. Withholding rent is always risky because even if a judge decides that you had a legal right to withhold, a judge could still order you to pay to the owner part of the money you withheld. If you do not have it all when the court makes a decision you will lose your case and will most likely be evicted. If you withhold rent you must not spend the rent that you withhold.

Where Can I Get Legal Help?
If you have a low income and want legal help with your case, call Vermont Legal Aid at (800) 889-2047. If Vermont Legal Aid cannot represent you and you are income-eligible, they will refer your case to Legal Services Law Line of Vermont and a lawyer from Law Line will give you legal advice and help you in representing yourself, including helping you making written responses.

If you are not low-income, you can hire an attorney by contacting the Vermont Bar Association's Lawyer Referral Service at (800) 639-7036.

Help Filling out Forms to Respond to the Eviction
To help you fill out the forms you need to Answer a Complaint, file a Counterclaim or Motion to Dismiss, respond to a landlord's request to have you pay rent into court or ask the court to reopen a case and set aside a default judgment, there is an online Interview that guides you through these forms step by step. Be sure to disable any popup blocker on your computer before using this tool.

Vermont Law Help, 2009. This is a website about Vermont law. We give this information as a public service. It is not legal advice. We are not acting as your lawyer.
Always consult a lawyer, if you can, before taking legal action.