The Easy Evict Procedure / What to Expect / Frequently Asked Questions
- Easy Evict is not, nor is it intended to be, the solution for everyone or every eviction. Easy Evict is
primarily for evictions for nonpayment or well documented lease violations.
If your case is more complex or you would like more individualized attention we can recommend attorneys that
may better suit your need, but be aware the cost will be more.
If you want a quick, easy, cheap eviction Easy Evict is hard to beat. This is a solution for owners who have properties an LLC and are therefore required to have an attorney represent them in eviction court
We use the same attorneys and procedure developed for properties serviced by Affordable Rental Associates, LLC
- The $310 includes the paperwork, court filing fee, the process server, a licensed attorney to appear in
court for you and delivering the paperwork to the proper places. It includes the second court date if
required as well delivering the papers to the Sheriff if required.
- We only provide service in Milwaukee County. We may be able to offer recommendations for attorneys in other
parts of the state. You will have to negotiate pricing directly with the attorneys.
- Sheriff Moves: Our experience is more than 90% of the tenants resolve the issue within a
week of court by either moving or paying. If your tenant does not vacate on their own you must turn the
eviction into the Sheriff within 30 days of the date of the writ (Court order for the Sheriff to
remove the tenant). This date is often the same as the court date. If you wait longer than that you will
have to start over and will lose the $310.
We deliver the paperwork to the Sheriff for you as part of the Easy Evict.
For a Sheriff move you will need to provide us with two checks, one for $5 payable to the Clerk of Courts for the Writ and one for $175 (Sheriff fee increased 1/1/17) payable to the Sheriff. You must obtain a letter from an Sheriff approved mover. That mover will require a credit card deposit. We use Eagle (414) 383-1776. The cost of the mover is $130 per hour or typically $260 - $500. On occasion it can be more if the tenant has lots of nice things. It can also be as low as $130 if everything is garbage.
The Sheriff will not accept the paperwork without the mover, the Sheriff and the Clerk of Courts being paid first.
- Case scheduling and appearances:
In general cases received by Wednesday afternoon are filed with the court that Thursday, with a court date two weeks later. If you elect to have your notice reviewed prior to filing, the court date may be delayed an additional week.
The Court has a new scheduling policy to even out their calendar. It is possible that your case will be postponed one additional week due to this.
Process service typically occurs Friday through Monday after filing.
Except for holiday weeks, all cases are heard on Thursdays.
Typically the owner does not need to appear in court. However in rare instances the tenant raises issues that only the owner can dispute such as claims they paid the rent or attempted to pay the rent and the owner refused it. In those cases the owner will need to appear at 1:30 PM, typically one week after the original court date
- Stipulated Dismissals Our goal is to have the tenant either pay or leave as soon as
possible. If the tenant raises issues that could force the case to go in front of the Circuit Court Judge it
could delay the eviction by a week, two weeks, or more. In those cases we instruct the attorney to attempt
to enter into a stipulated dismissal, allowing the tenant extra time to leave or perhaps pay and stay. This
is almost always gives you the desired result quicker than waiting to be heard by the Circuit Court Judge.
If you want the tenant to vacate no matter what you must let us know that when you turn the paperwork over
to us, but be aware there may be time delays.
- Money Judgements:
You can only get a money judgment hearing if the tenant is personally served, appears in court or the summons is“published.” We instruct our process server to attempt personal service, however many people who owe money know to avoid the server. If you want to make sure you get a judgment hearing you must provide us with a check made out to the Daily Reporter for $110 when you give us the case. If the process server gets personal service the check will be destroyed or returned to you. If not we will request a publication date. Even when a tenant appears in court, the judge may decide not to order a money judgment hearing based on the case.
A money judgment hearing is not a guarantee of a judgment. Only the Court can decide this.
If we get personal service, the tenant appears in court or you paid for publication of the summons the court date for the money judgment will be three to five weeks after the hearing date.
If you want to pursue a money judgment you must provide copies at least ten days prior to the hearing of:- Deposit transmittal letter you sent the tenant
- Copies of paid receipts supporting the charges.
- Pictures are great.
The owner, property manager or someone with personal knowledge of the details of the ledger and charges must be present at the money judgment hearing to testify as to amount due and damages.
Being awarded a judgment does not mean you will recover your lost rent. You can garnish the tenant's wages if you know where they work, they make more than the exemption amount and do not have other garnishments or attachments. The cost for the garnishment filing is $310
Things That May Cause Your Case To Fail
We do not make the rules nor necessarily agree with them but....
- If you gave the tenant a lease with option to purchase the eviction may fail and you will be out the
$310.
- If the property is in foreclosure and the bank has taken an assignment of rents the eviction may fail and
you will be out the $310.
- If the tenant files bankruptcy the eviction may fail and you will be out the $310
- Acceptance of rent after serving the notice for nonpayment, but prior to the expiration of the notice, may
cause the eviction to fail. There has been a change in the
law effective March 30th, 2012 that permits acceptance of rent after the notice return date. There
is not a clear indication that the Milwaukee Courts are following this rule.
- If you had your tenant do work as a rent offset, expect there will be an argument as to whether they owe
rent. The case may fail and you will be out the $310.
- Using the wrong notice, filing out the notice incorrectly or serving it improperly will cause your case to
fail and you will lose the $310 plus the time to start over. We recommend that you choose to have the notice
reviewed prior to filing to avoid many of these problems.
Examples of notice errors:
- Putting the wrong return date on the "fill in the date" style 5-Day notice will cause your
case to be dismissed.
For example you wrote the notice out on the 10th with date of the 15th but do not serve it until the 11th because the tenant was not home, your case will fail. If you mail the notice certified on the 10th it will fail, because you must add two days for mailing.
The new style notices avoids this problem by using the phrase "within 5 days service herein" instead of a specific date. This notice is available for free at WIevictionForms.com.
- Just because the tenant signed a rental agreement requiring them to pay certain charges, it does not
mean the charge can be included on a five day. If you include late fees, damages, utilities or
security deposit on your 5-Day for a month to month tenant your case will fail and you will lose
your $310. A 14-Day notice would be proper. However if it is a year lease then you must use a 5-Day
breach notice and a 14 Day would fail.
- If you have a lease for more than one year, even if it is just a few days more, you must use a
thirty day notice rather than a five day or the eviction will fail and you will have to start over.
A common mistake here when doing year leases, is letting the tenant move in a bit early and using that date as the lease start date, causing it to be a lease for a year and a few days.
- Putting the wrong return date on the "fill in the date" style 5-Day notice will cause your
case to be dismissed.
- You must evict in the name of the property owner, not the management entity. Milwaukee County Eviction Court Commissioners are dismissing or modifying cases if the owner's name on the summons does not match the city treasurer records.
