Settlement FAQs

No, assuming you fully pay as agreed and vacate the property on or before the agreed deadline.

Because a cash for keys agreement will not benefit our clients. After your landlord hires an attorney, he must bear the cost of attorney’s fees in addition to court filing fees and the costs associated with paying for your uncompensated time in the property. Piling on the additional expense of paying you to leave just does not make sense for our clients.

There is also the issue of incentive. Why should you be rewarded for breaching your lease agreement? Few of our clients would entertain an option that rewards tenants for not doing what they promised.

Because settling means you still keep the eviction off of your credit report.

Once an eviction lawsuit is started, the County you live in will create a public court record of your lawsuit. But such court records do not display on your credit report. Court records reflect only that you had a legal conflict with your landlord. Landlords must take the additional step of recording the final eviction judgment with the County’s land records office for that judgment to reflect on your credit report. While court records often show the tenant lost, these records may also reflect that the landlord dismissed the eviction or even that the tenant won. When you enter into a settlement with Girling Law’s client and fulfill all of your requirements under that agreement, we will dismiss your eviction lawsuit. After you complete all of the steps in your settlement, there will be no record of a judgment on your credit report and the County’s records for your eviction will reflect that your landlord dismissed the eviction.

No.  We will not agree to this under any circumstances.

You previously made promises to pay or to comply with other terms under your lease agreement.  You broke those promises.  While we understand and appreciate that you may have suffered some financial hardship, this history makes it impossible for us to provide our clients effective legal counsel while also recommending they accept any new promises you may make. 

Additionally, we have a growing problem with tenants providing falsified documentation.  We have had tenants go as far as providing us with contact information so we could “verify” their documentary evidence, but the contact ends up being a friend or relative who lies to us about who they are and the tenant’s circumstances.  The risks for a landlord to agree to a non-compliant tenant’s future promises of compliance are too high to justify. 

If you want to build credibility in your landlord’s mind, the best way to do this is to offer to make payments immediately.  Money talks!  The opportunity you have to settle with your landlord will likely help you and your family dodge some life-changing consequences.  This is a situation where you need to reach out for help from friends and family to benefit from this opportunity.

Yes. But we will only do so after you have completely signed a settlement agreement, an Agreed Judgment, and tendered a payment that fully covers your ongoing possession of the property, and paid a significant payment towards your past rent.

Because verbal agreements are nearly impossible to enforce in this type of settlement.

Additionally, our detailed settlement agreements are extremely helpful in ensuring you and your landlord are not surprised by each other’s expectations. There are many moving parts settlement agreements must address. These include your move-out date, the amounts your are paying, the timing of those payments, the condition of the property upon move out, the landlord’s obligations to you after your full compliance, the security deposit, post-judgment motions, and your rights to appeal. There are just too many items to address in an agreement like this to justify completing our agreement verbally or by text.

An Agreed Judgment (sometimes called a “pocket judgment”) is an un-recorded judgment the tenant has signed and to which the tenant has expressed his agreement. The Agreed Judgment gives the landlord everything the landlord would have requested from the Judge had the case gone to trial. Girling Law will record this unrecorded Agreed Judgment to take possession of the property from you only if you fail to comply with the terms of your settlement agreement.

When you settle a case with your landlord, your landlord will require a means of quickly enforcing the settlement agreement should you fail to fulfill your promises. Let’s say you agreed to move out on a Sunday. On the following Monday morning, your landlord discovers you are still in the property. Girling Law will respond to your failure to comply with your promise to move out on or before Sunday by recording the Agreed Judgment, and then we will immediately request a writ of possession from the Judge.

When the tenant DOES fully comply with the terms of the settlement agreement, Girling Law will destroy the Agreed Judgment and will later file paperwork to dismiss the eviction lawsuit.

No. Absolutely not. You must sign both documents or we will refuse to settle with you.

Yes. We are happy to agree to such terms.

There are some things you should understand about these arrangements, however.

First, we will take a zero-tolerance approach to non-payment and late payment under such a payment plan. We are not a collections company; we do not have the resources to collect your payments. The consequence of failing to make a payment on time is an immediate termination of your right to continue on the payment plan. Girling Law will immediately file the Agreed Judgment upon your failure to pay a scheduled payment.

Second, Girling Law will agree only to draft the payments from a checking account. We will not accept cash payments, checks, money orders, cashier’s checks, etc. delivered to us by mail or in person. If you do not have a checking account and you are not willing or able to obtain one, you will not be able to participate in this option.

Third, under no circumstances will we ever agree to accepting a late payment from you. You should fully expect us to refuse to agree to giving you an extension on any payment. We refuse such a request 100% of the time. While the reasons you give us for such a request may be very reasonable, we will still refuse such a request.

No. A lump sum payment is far more valuable to your landlord than is a schedule of payments to be made over time.

Because your landlord is receiving a substantial portion of the total amount you owe immediately with a lump sum payment, landlords are far more open to agreeing to waive a portion of your total balance. Landlords perceive far more value in an immediate payment.

A promise to pay over a period of time simply does not carry the same perceived value in your landlord’s mind. A several of things drive this. One is that a set of promises to pay in the future is far less valuable to anyone than is cash in hand. Second is the fact that you have failed to pay rent in the past. This signals to your landlord that you are very likely to fail to make payments under a payment plan in the future. Therefore, your landlord sees your future promises to pay in the future as being high risk. Third, is the lack of leverage your landlord will have over you several months from now. Presently, you are in possession of your landlord’s property. The threat of an eviction judgment and a forced removal through the Constable’s office gives your landlord some meaningful leverage. If your landlord accepts a payment plan, he will not have that leverage after you move out.

Few tenants pay their payment plans completely. Your landlord is well aware of this. So, your landlord will not agree to reduce your total obligation in exchange for a set of promises you are very unlikely to keep.