Consent Judgment

Q. Is it possible to do a consent judgment without first filing the dispo (I just want the tenant, myself, and the judge to sign the consent j and I keep it on hand until the tenant is caught up)?

If the tenant is willing to sign, is this a good way to get tenant to catch up on payments?

If not, what do you suggest?


A. No - - the dispossessory must be started for the judge to get involved. You can work the filing fee into the consent judgment. The judge will not sign anything that is not going through the court system.

You should start the dispo process on every tenant that has not paid by a certain date. For us it is usually the first of the month since our lease payments are due on the 25th. You can then negotiate a consent judgment with the tenant during the month knowing that you have the leverage of the legal process that is going forward.