Special Announcement

Posted Friday, October 2, 2020

New laws apply to eviction cases for landlords and tenants

Landlords: File the Complaint with the Court (Step 3 of 7)

Eviction for Landlords: Step 3Step 1 - Give Notice Step 2 - Fill Out Forms Step 3 - File In Court Step 4 - Serve Tenant Step 5 - Tenant Responds Step 6 - Trial Step 7 - After Judgment

How to File Your Complaint

  1. Make 2 copies of the Summons and Complaint and take them with the originals to the courthouse in the county where the property is located. Click to find the court in your area.
     

  2. Turn in your forms -- original and copies -- to the clerk. You will have to pay the court filing fee.
     

  3. If you cannot afford a filing fee, you can ask for a fee waiver.  If the court approves your fee waiver request, you will not have to pay the fees. But if you win your lawsuit and collect money, the court may ask you to pay back the waived fees.
     

  4. The clerk will stamp your forms "Filed" and give back 2 file-stamped copies of all the forms. One copy of each is for you. The other is for the tenant. If there is more than one tenant, make extra copies for the other tenants (you can make copies of the file-stamped copy for this purpose).  The court keeps the original.

Once you file your complaint, you may decide you do not want to move forward with it. If that is the case, you can dismiss your case. There are a number of reasons why you may want to dismiss. Click to find out more about why and how to dismiss an eviction case.

Go to the Next Step