In the coming eviction crisis, we have to make sure that all tenants file an answer to the complaint within the time frame allowed. That’s because it’s very rare for courts to vacate a default judgment. Let me explain how rare.

Many years ago, in 1977 or 1978, I ran what can only be described as an eviction defense mill. We helped tenants who were facing eviction to file the paperwork to forestall eviction. Before rent control tenants had even fewer rights than now; it just gave them more time to move.

One day a tenant came to my office with his default judgment in hand.

He had all of his paperwork (did I mention that I loved tenants who had all of their paperwork?) and I read through it. He had attempted to answer the complaint, but since it was in the form of a letter, the court had returned it to him, noting that it wasn’t in proper form.

And of course, that meant that his time to respond had run out, and the landlord had obtained a judgment, allowing the eviction.

But what was most interesting was the underlying 30-day notice. The landlord was evicting him for demanding repairs to the property. In those days there was no just cause eviction, but there were two reasons you couldn’t evict a tenant.

One was discrimination and the other was retaliation for demanding repairs. Both of these are very hard to prove—unless the landlord is such a witless wonder that they write it down in the notice and send it to the tenant.

And for the first or second time (c’mon, folks, it was 40 years ago), I had in my hand a notice that said quite specifically that the tenant was being evicted for demanding repairs. I read the notice once. I read the notice twice. I rubbed my eyes. And read it again.

Oops. I forgot to finish this thread, but it’s not even 7:00. I promise to finish it later.