money judgement - Landlord Forum thread

money judgement by Anonymous (iowa) on June 12, 2012 @15:45

I filed a money judgement at the same time I filed the FED because it's cheaper than filing seperately. I was advised to ask for $5000 (state limit) followed by "to be ammended at hearing". I think the tenants are actually NOT going to respond to the filing. I've never filed in this manner of saying to be ammended. Normally, if they don't respond w/in 20 days, judgement automatically goes in my favor & there is no hearing. I'm just curious to how this will play out if they in fact do not respond? Obviously I'll find out eventually in time, but can't help wondering ahead of time. Any ideas?

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Re: money judgement by Anonymous on June 12, 2012 @16:09	[ Reply ]

You have no way of knowing how much your damage will be until the tenants leave. You will need to show the court the actual cost of damages so as to amend. Hopefully the damage does not exceed the $5000.00 limit.

Re: money judgement

Re: money judgement by Bryan (Ia) on June 12, 2012 @18:25	[ Reply ]

Even with a default judgment, the court is unlikely to award the monetary damages without evidence. When I appeared for monetary only, the T didn't show and I had to show the court detailed costs for each of the items. Wasn't hard, I had a spreadsheet printed out listing them.

Re: money judgement by Anonymous (MN) on June 13, 2012 @10:49	[ Reply ]

Sounds like the Iowan shot himself in the foot a little bit by being greedy. You've admitted you had $5,000 to be amended knowing the actual damages were far less. So you put that in there solely because you felt the tenants wouldn't show and you felt you would be awarded $5,000 by default. Sorry bud, doesn't work that way. Depending on your judge, he may lower the amount you're given because he'll know what you were trying to pull by asking for the $5,000. Some judges are hard a$$es like that. Not a smart move.