Why no judgement?

[kathy]

Over a year ago, we evicted a tenant for failure to pay rent. At the time we filed for eviction, we also filed for a judgement for the un-paid rent. At court that day, she admitted she owed us the 2 months rent. After hearing both sides in court, the judge gave her 10 days to vacate the apartment. We never heard anything as to a judgement for the un-paid rent, until just the other day. We were mailed a paper from the court, saying the case was dismissed without prejudice for lack of prosecution. What exactly does this mean? We did file for un-paid rent when we filed for the eviction, yet never received a court date nor any notice of any further times/dates to be in court. At this point, we have no idea where this former tenant may be to re-file for unpaid rent. How would we go about trying to get the unpaid rent from this tenant, or is this just a losing cause? Thanks..

[ohiolandlord]

Generally, in Ohio, you need to file a motion for default judgment if the tenant does not answer the complaint in time. Only after doing that will the court schedule a second hearing concerning damages.

This and other questions concerning the eviction process are answered at these links:

http://www.ohiolandlordtenant.com/legal_forms.html (at bottom of page)

http://www.ohiolandlordtenant.com/evictkit.html

http://www.ohiolandlordtenant.com/3day.html#completekit

For a complete and thorough analysis of the entire eviction process try this:

http://www.ohiolandlordtenant.com/eviction_audio.html