Foreclosure Papers Tallahassee Eviction Notice Services

Florida led the nation in foreclosures in 2012 and preliminary information indicates the trend is not letting up in 2013.

According to a RealtyTrac report, one in 32 houses in Florida was served foreclosure papers last year, up more than 50 percent over the year before. But the time it took to foreclose was the third longest in the nation, at 2.3 years.

Florida is a judicial state, which means that foreclosures must be handled through the court system by way of a lawsuit. Once such a suit is filed with the court clerk, the law demands that there must be a service of process upon the defendant.

In other words, until the homeowner receives notice of the foreclosure lawsuit, the process comes to a halt. Fast, professional process servers can clear the way for the procedure to continue through the court system.

In the Tallahassee area, Accurate Serve, an Accredited Florida Process Server, has been handling the delivery of foreclosure papers since 2012. Though the location is convenient to the capital city, the office actually has no geographic limitations on serving papers.

Once the property owner is served, Florida law gives them 20 days to respond and move the case to court. If no response is received, the bank can ask the court for a default judgment and take the home in as little as six weeks from the initial filing.

The Eviction Process

In the case of rental tenants in violation of a lease agreement, landlords in Florida have the option of using Accurate Serve to deliver either three-day or seven-day eviction notices.

• Three-Day Evictions – These evictions are used in cases of non-payment of rent.
• Seven-Day Evictions – Such evictions are for other violations such as unauthorized pets or criminal activity.

As in a foreclosure, landlords must file a complaint with the clerk of the court to begin a formal court case. The landlord then have the tenant served a summons, or notification of eviction, a procedure that Accurate Serve of Tallahassee handles with strict professionalism and efficiency. Otherwise the process will have to be left to the schedule of overworked sheriff’s deputies and possibly delayed.

If the tenant can’t be located, the summons is served by posting a notice on the property. The clerk of the court must then send a notification to the tenant via certified mail.

Once the tenant is notified, he has five days to answer or the landlord can ask the court for a default judgment. If the case goes to court and the landlord succeeds in pleading his case, the court issues a “Writ of Possession.” Once the writ is delivered to the tenant or posted on the property, the tenant has 24 hours to vacate the property or risk physical removal by the Sheriff’s Department.

Landlord/tenant rules and legal obligations vary from city to city. But the basic process of evicting a non-compliant tenant remains the same across the state of Florida.

Whether it is a foreclosure or an eviction, serving notification of the legal process to the occupier is vital in moving the case ahead. That is Accurate Serve’s specialty.