Eviction cases through Evictions API

Who this is for

Landlords and property managers who decide to start an eviction case for unpaid rent. eSamaHomes never starts, sends or continues a case by itself.

Legal Disclaimer

eSamaHomes is a property management software platform, not a law firm, and does not provide legal advice or representation. Eviction-related legal services are provided by independent, licensed attorneys through our third-party service provider, Evictions API.

The assigned attorney reviews the case, evaluates applicable legal requirements, and advises on the appropriate next steps. All court proceedings and legal filings are handled by authorized legal professionals, as required by applicable law.

The screens where you connect Evictions API, start a case and follow it show this disclaimer too.

Only an Owner of your eSamaHomes account can connect Evictions API, start, send, withdraw a case, report that the tenant paid, pay a cost or send a message. Members see the case.

Before you start

• An account at Evictions API, and an API key from it. Live keys are made by the owner of that account, signed in on evictionsapi.com. eSamaHomes takes live keys only in production; anywhere else it takes test keys only, and a test case is never served or filed.
• Something on the lease is past due. Start eviction shows only when your account is connected, the lease has a past-due balance, no case on it is unfinished, and Evictions API serves the property's state.
• Proof that you can act for the owner: the deed, or for a property manager the management agreement. Upload it in the lease's Documents first.
• To start at filing (you already served a notice): the notice and its proof of service, uploaded the same way, and the date, method and number of days of the notice.
• Your company's address and phone in Settings, or type them when you start.

Steps

1. Go to Integrations. On the Evictions API card, click Connect, paste your key and click Connect. The card shows Connected · Live (or Test) and your Evictions API account's name.
2. Open the lease and click Start eviction on the Eviction case card.
3. How the case starts: At the notice (the attorney prepares and serves the notice) or At filing (I already served a notice). Evictions API's fees for the property's state show here, from their own price list.
4. The facts: check the street, unit, city, ZIP code, owner of record and your address and phone. eSamaHomes fills them in from the lease: the tenants on the lease, the rent, and the lease's ledger of rent, late fees and other charges and the payments on them. Occupants are not named; add anyone else under Anyone else to name on the case.
5. What only you can answer: tick the statements that are true and answer the question about military service. You can't save until you do.
6. Documents: the newest signed lease goes with the case when there is one. Choose what each of your other files is for, or leave it on Don't send.
7. Click Check and save draft. The case is saved as a draft at Evictions API, and their checks show with a tick or a warning.
8. When every check passes, read the cost line and click Send to the attorney. A note says "Starting this case turns off online Pay Rent and auto-pay for this lease." Click Send to the attorney again to send it, or Cancel. Nothing goes to an attorney before this. To drop a draft instead, click Discard draft.

Example

Pat Homes LLC rents 1 Bay St, Unit 4A to Terry Tenant at $1,500 a month. September's rent is paid, October's is unpaid and a $75 late fee was charged. Pat uploads the deed in the lease's Documents, clicks Start eviction, chooses At the notice, checks the facts (owed now: $1,575.00, of it $1,500.00 rent), ticks the statements, answers No to military service, and marks the deed as proof. Check and save draft shows every check ticked, and Send to the attorney, clicked twice, sends it. The card then shows The attorney is reviewing the notice and Next: Waiting on the attorney.

What happens next

• The card follows the case: the step in plain words, who it waits on (you, the attorney, Evictions API or the court), the attorney's name and firm once engaged, the court case number, deadlines, the hearing, and every step with its date. Evictions API tells eSamaHomes when the case changes, and eSamaHomes reads every unfinished case again each day. Click Refresh to read it now.
• Online payment stops for the lease. While the case is open, the tenant can't pay that lease online: the portal says "Online payment is turned off for this lease because an eviction case is open." with your contact, and every Pay button on it is gone. Invoice emails carry no Pay now link. Auto-pay is turned off and the tenant who ran it gets an email saying so, and that a case is open. Bank payments already on their way when you sent the case are listed on the card.
• When the case is finished (closed, withdrawn or not accepted), online payment works again. Auto-pay stays off. If it was on when you sent the case, Turn auto-pay back on shows; it works only for the same tenant, still on the lease, with a bank account auto-pay can charge.
• Costs: Evictions API's charges show under Costs. Pay opens their own checkout; you pay Evictions API there, and eSamaHomes takes no part of it. The attorney's fee is paid to the attorney.
• Recording what it cost (Landlord Mode): eSamaHomes doesn't add these to your books by itself. In Money in and out, record each payment as Paid a bill with the category Legal and eviction: Evictions API's fee, the attorney's fee and court costs. It then shows in cash flow. In property manager mode there is no place to record them yet.
• Messages: write to Evictions API under Messages with Evictions API. Messages are read from Evictions API each time and not kept by eSamaHomes. Test cases have none.
• A payment you record by hand for a tenant on the lease, on Rent & Payments with Receive Payment, shows Payment warning — Active eviction case before anything is recorded. Accept and make the receipt records it; when a balance is left, you type the agreed date to pay it and the date on the notice, and eSamaHomes makes the Partial Payment Receipt: kept on the lease's Documents as Payment receipt (the tenant reads it, an owner doesn't), emailed to every tenant on the lease with the PDF, and sent to the case at Evictions API. I'm returning it records nothing. See Record a payment.
• When the agreed date passes and money is still owed, the card says "The agreed date for … has passed." and your Owners get one notice. Tell the attorney sends the attorney a message with the date and what's still due (live cases only); Record a payment opens Rent & Payments. Nothing continues the case by itself.
• Tenant paid tells the attorney the tenant paid. It doesn't close the case; the attorney decides. Withdraw case withdraws it; if an attorney is already working on it, it goes on hold until they confirm all work has stopped.
• Owners (property managers): the owner sees each sent case on their properties on the Rent page of their portal: the unit, the step, the date of each step, who it waits on and how it ended. Never the messages, documents, costs, attorney or anything about the tenant.
• The tenant sees only that an eviction case is open, on their Pay Rent page and in the auto-pay email. Never the step, dates, messages, documents, costs or attorney.

If something looks wrong

• "Messages work on live cases only." after Tell the attorney: test cases can't take messages. On a live case, try again.
• The receipt wasn't emailed (a tenant with no email address) or didn't reach the case (Evictions API couldn't be reached): the receipt is still on the lease's Documents. Give it to the tenant yourself.
• There is no Start eviction. Your account isn't connected, nothing on the lease is past due, a case on it isn't finished, or Evictions API doesn't serve the property's state.
• "Use your live key from Evictions API." You pasted a test key in production. In any other place the message asks for a test key instead.
• "Evictions API hasn't turned on live cases for your account yet." Contact them at hello@evictionsapi.com.
• "The property's city, ZIP code are missing." The property's address was saved before eSamaHomes kept it in parts. Type the missing parts in the form.
• "Add your company's address and phone number in Settings, or type them here." Type them in the form, or add them in Settings.
• A check shows a warning after Check and save draft. Evictions API needs more, for example proof that you can act for the owner. Add it in Documents, click Discard draft, and start again.
• "Evictions API sent the case back before …" They checked a step before sending it and sent it back with a note. Nothing was sent. Reply to them by email, or withdraw the case. A sent case's facts can't be changed from eSamaHomes.
• The card stopped changing on its own. When you connect, eSamaHomes adds its own endpoint on Evictions API's Developers → Webhooks page, so it hears about every change. Don't delete it. If it was deleted, click Connect again on the Evictions API card in Integrations and paste your key: eSamaHomes adds a new endpoint, even while a case is open. Until then, Refresh on the case reads it, and eSamaHomes reads every unfinished case again once a day.
• "Disconnect after it closes or is withdrawn." You can't disconnect Evictions API while a case isn't finished.