What is an eviction and its outcomes?

An eviction is an action by a government that forces a tenant or group of tenants to leave a rental property, and keeps those persons from accessing the property once they’re removed. It’s usually carried out by law enforcement officers, such as a county sheriff or court deputy.

An eviction can only happen when a property owner (aka landlord) asks for a warrant of eviction from a court of law, and a judge, after hearing testimony from the landlord and any tenants that appear, issues that warrant. The warrant is in effect an order to a law enforcement agency to carry out the eviction.

A Rochester City Court judge decides whether to issue a warrant of eviction in response to a request by a landlord. The judge will typically also decide whether to issue a judgement against the tenant. A judgement is an amount of money that the court orders the tenant to pay the landlord, usually an amount that is supposed to covered rent that is owed and hasn’t been paid.

There are three kinds of outcomes that can happen during the hearing:

• Dismissal or withdrawal. These amount to a “win” for the tenant in which neither a warrant nor a judgement is issued by the judge. Dismissal happens when a judge decides that there are insufficient grounds for issuing either a warrant or a judgement, and “dismisses” the request of the landlord. Withdrawal is an action in which the plaintiff ends the case by withdrawing the request for a warrant or judgement.
• Adjournment. This is a decision by a judge to halt the hearing and continue it at a later date. Usually, a judge will adjourn the case when it looks as though there is a substantial legal dispute at hand. For instance, perhaps the tenant disputes the landlord’s claim that she hasn’t paid the rent, and claims she has evidence of this. In such an event, rather than ask for the evidence to be shown right then and there, the judge will often adjourn the case to a later date, giving the parties time to prepare their evidence and arguments.
• Judgement and/or Warrant. This is where the judge issues a warrant of eviction and/or a judgement for past-due rent against the tenant. There are important variations across warrants and judgements that you’re going to need to record, and that you’ll learn about as we go along.

Why is understanding eviction important?

Most poor renting families spend at least 50-70% of their income just on rent and utilities, one misstep or emergency can send them into eviction and homelessness (Why Eviction Matters, Eviction Lab).

Eviction data collected at both a national and local level can assist policy makers establish fair practices that both prevent eviction and limit the costs of eviction. Robust Eviction Data Can Keep Cities from “Designing Policy in the Dark” (Peiffer, Housing Matters, 2018).