If you cannot attend the General District Court on the day of your unlawful detention hearing, you must ask the court for a new hearing date. This is called a «continuation.» If the landlord asks for it, the judge will order you to pay the rent due in a judicial escrow account as a condition of receiving the continuation. However, if the judge finds that you have a bona fide defence to eviction, he or she will not order that the rent be paid into an escrow account. Another defense is that the landlord wants to evict because you complained or exercised legal rights. In order to use this defence, the landlord needs to know that you complained to the landlord or a government agency about a rental housing problem, or that you joined a group of tenants or filed a lawsuit or testified against the landlord before the unlawful detention was filed. Experts say rent assistance funds are also running out. The Legal Aid Justice Center of Virginia says this is already leading to an increase in deportation requests, particularly in Charlottesville and Richmond. If you don`t have all the money owed, you may be able to prevent the eviction by getting a written commitment from a local government or nonprofit organization to pay the rent owing, plus late fees, attorneys` fees and court costs, within 10 days of the first hearing date (called the «return date»). This is called a «buy-back offer» and can be submitted to the court before or on the return date. The court must then continue (postpone) the hearing for 10 days so that the money can be paid to the owner.
If it is paid in full within these 10 days, the court will dismiss the case and you can stay. However, if the promised money is not paid in full within these 10 days, the judge will render a judgment to the landlord for the immediate taking possession of the premises, in addition to a judgment on all the sums owed. «The mood is bleak right now,» said Marty Wegbreit, director of litigation at the Central Virginia Legal Aid Society. «In Richmond General District Court, 803 deportation hearings are scheduled.» Illegal custody must be served on you (legally extradited). This can be done in three different ways. (1) If your landlord receives full payment of all rent and other amounts due after the property judgment, they must notify you in writing within five (5) business days that you accept your money with reservation. «With reservation» means that your landlord retains the right to evict (reserved). If your landlord does not give you this written notice, it may be possible to stop the eviction. If you haven`t received this notification and you`re still at risk of deportation, get legal help right away! If a landlord wants to evict you because you haven`t paid the rent, they must notify you in writing within 5 days that you can move or pay the rent. This is sometimes called a «pay or quit» message. If you pay the rent in 5 days, you can stay.
If you do not pay, the landlord can bring an unlawful liability action (eviction) in the General District Court (GDC). «The tenant should always go to court and always seek legal help because there are ways to fight these evictions, even now that the law has changed. But what if they don`t go to court or they lose their case, the landlord finally gets the right to lock them out and make the family homeless,» said Victoria Horrock, senior counsel at the Legal Aid Justice Center. Every tenant has the right to live in rented apartments, unless the landlord follows the legal eviction procedure. You are a tenant if you pay rent regularly during regular periods, such as once a month or once a week. You are also a tenant if you have stayed in a hotel or motel for more than 90 days or if you are subject to a written lease for a period of more than 90 days. You are not a tenant if you have stayed in a hotel or motel for less than 90 days. In this case, the only legal right you have is to receive five days` notice before your landlord evicts you to help you yourself without going to court. The following PDF document contains questions and answers on evacuation issues, including lockdowns and utility closures.
Content Details RICHMOND, Va. — At the Central Virginia Legal Aid Society, many of the cases they`ve had in recent months have been deportations. Some protections against eviction have officially ended in Virginia. An illegal detainee can be served on you legally, even if you never get it. If it was properly given to a household member who didn`t tell you about it, you were still served legally. If an illegal detainee was properly abandoned and sent to you, but you never saw him, you were still served legally. Both are unusual, but it happens. You should tell household members to pay attention to court documents, and you should pay attention yourself.