With the ongoing housing crisis, preventing housing displacements is more important than ever. Evictions, a leading cause of such displacements, present a complex challenge that requires a delicate balance between owner and tenant rights. The process involves a fair amount of paperwork, multiple departments, and a long list of steps to complete.
With all the complexity involved, it’s difficult to spot trends that could help you stay ahead of evictions in your community. You're dealing with ensuring compliance with local and state laws, managing lengthy and costly court proceedings, enforcing the writ of possession, and ultimately, preventing unjust evictions that often lead to homelessness.
Eviction management software can be a game changer in addressing these challenges, empowering you to work through cases faster, identify issues more easily, and ensure that any time a case results in an eviction, it’s justified.
So how does eviction management software help address challenges at each stage of the process?
1. Ensure Legal Compliance with Notice of Eviction
The eviction process is governed by a complex web of local and state laws. These laws can vary significantly from one jurisdiction to another, and they often change over time. Housing agencies must ensure landlords are aware of these laws and follow them correctly to avoid legal issues, such as lawsuits and fines.
Non-compliance can also result in eviction proceedings being delayed or dismissed, causing further complications for both landlords and tenants. This can be a significant source of stress and uncertainty, and it can consume a lot of your agency's time and resources.
How eviction management software helps:
- Ensure better compliance with case management tools: You can now manage the initial stages of the eviction process by tracking the reasons for eviction and ensuring they comply with local and state laws, ensuring every eviction is a “just cause” eviction. The software can also help ensure that the notice is served correctly and within the required timeframe.
- Track information easily with efficient document management: store digital copies of eviction notices, evidence provided by the landlord, and any responses from the tenant, ensuring they are easily accessible and securely stored. This can help verify that the notice was served correctly and in compliance with the law.
- Empower all parties with an Owner & Tenant Portal: The portal can provide a platform for landlords to serve eviction notices digitally, ensuring tenants receive them promptly. It can also provide tenants with information about their rights and the eviction process. A portal helps landlords understand their responsibilities and helps tenants understand their rights. The portal can also provide a platform for tenants to challenge an eviction if they believe it is not justified.
2. Manage Lengthy and Costly Court Proceedings
Court proceedings are an inherent part of the eviction process. These proceedings can be lengthy and costly, often taking months to resolve. This strains your agency's resources and can create hardship for both landlords and tenants. It’s no wonder housing agencies often struggle with the backlog of cases, leading to delays in resolving eviction issues.
Delays in court proceedings can lead to prolonged periods of uncertainty for landlords and tenants alike. They can also result in lost rental income for landlords and increased legal costs for everyone, exacerbating the financial and emotional stress associated with evictions.
How eviction management software helps:
- More effective communication with correspondence management: Software solutions like 3Di Engage can manage communication between the housing agency, landlords, tenants, and the court, ensuring that all parties are kept informed of the progress of the case.
- Speed up the process with workflow management tools: The software can automate the process of filing a lawsuit, reducing the time and cost involved. It can also track the progress of the case through the court system, ensuring that all deadlines are met.
3. Ensure the Enforcement of Judgments
If a court has issued a judgment in favor of the landlord, the next challenge is enforcing the writ of possession. This involves physically removing the tenant from the property, which can be a difficult and sensitive task, with potential for confrontations and safety issues.
Failure to enforce the writ of possession promptly and effectively can lead to further complications. It can prolong the eviction process, result in additional legal issues, and cause distress for both landlords and tenants. This can add to the already high-stress levels associated with evictions.
How eviction management software helps:
- Keep all parties informed with case management capability: a case management tool continues to help, as it allows you to track the issuance of the judgment and writ of possession, allowing you to alert the relevant department to enforce it promptly.
- Automate next steps with workflow management: once a judgment is issued, 3Di’s software can automatically trigger the next steps in the process, such as notifying the tenant of the judgment and scheduling the eviction.
In the event the court issues a judgment in favor of the tenant, eviction management software can ensure proper communication of the judgment to all parties, track compliance with court orders to prevent unlawful evictions and make document management simple and centralized. This helps promote a smoother resolution process, reducing potential stress and legal complications.
4. Prevent Evictions from Leading to Homelessness
One of the most significant challenges associated with eviction is the risk of homelessness. When tenants are evicted, they often struggle to find new housing, especially if they have a record of eviction or financial difficulties. Housing agencies are acutely aware of the social impact of evictions and the importance of preventing homelessness.
Homelessness is a major social issue that can lead to a host of other problems, including health issues, unemployment, and increased crime rates. It can also put a strain on community resources and services. This makes preventing evictions and homelessness a top priority.
How eviction management software helps:
- Get Insightful reporting & analytics: the right eviction management solution can provide insights into eviction trends, helping an agency identify areas where evictions are high and take proactive measures to prevent them. It can also help track the outcomes of evictions, such as whether tenants were able to find new housing. Not to mention, it can help address disparities in displacement, and provide insights to inform housing policy.
- Provide next steps in the Owner & Tenant Portal: The portal can provide resources for evicted individuals to find new housing, helping to prevent homelessness. It can also provide landlords with information about alternatives to eviction, such as mediation or payment plans.
Reduce housing displacement in your community
3Di’s eviction management software offers a comprehensive solution to challenges faced by housing agencies. This solution simplifies the tracking and processing of various types of evictions, ensuring an appropriate balance of owner and tenant rights.
It streamlines processes with workflow automation, multi-channel notifications, and role-based actions and reporting. It reduces paperwork with online forms, and it allows you to store, organize, and easily access your digital documents.
Interested in learning more about how 3Di’s eviction management solution can help you reduce housing displacement in your community? Book a free demo today.
