The Eviction Moratorium is Over in Mississippi. What Happens Next?

Transcript

welcome facebook viewers this is my name is brad botes and this is the bond and botes law offices weekly facebook live um this week we are talking specifically about the end of the eviction moratorium that we are seeing in the states that we serve in alabama and in mississippi um many of you are aware that for the last year and a half or so there has been a moratorium on evictions the most recent moratorium was put into place by the cdc and just a couple of weeks ago the united states supreme court issued a decision saying that the cdc did not have authority to issue a prohibition moratorium on evictions so evictions have started up we expect to see them in larger and larger numbers in both alabama and mississippi in last week's episode we talked specifically about the eviction process in alabama so if you are viewing this and you live or are renting in alabama i encourage you to go back to last week's bonnie bonus facebook live episode in which we had as a guest holly ray holly ray is with legal services of alabama in fact she manages the huntsville office and really had quite a bit of helpful information on the eviction process in alabama this week uh we're fortunate to have my good friend and law partner ed woods ed is the managing attorney for all of the bond and botes law offices in mississippi and he also serves as a justice court judge in mississippi and has for a long time so ed will offer us some specific insight into how the eviction process is goes forward and how it is carried out in mississippi um before we get started i want to remind our viewers that the bond and botes law offices are located throughout alabama and mississippi we help people with money problems and we have been for over 30 years our attorneys are very experienced and at this point we are offering absolutely free initial consultation so if you're facing an issue with eviction or if you're facing really any any kind of financial concerns right now and we know a lot of you after this past year and a half are struggling financially we encourage you reach out the initial consultations with our attorneys are absolutely free we're doing them right now virtually if you choose we'll do them from the comfort safety of your own home or your own office we just really want to make sure that you're informed and you know what your rights are and that's why we're talking specifically about the eviction procedures in a mississippi today and we did it with alabama last week i encourage our viewers eviction may not impact you directly money problems may not impact you directly but if you know somebody with financial problems if you know somebody that is renting and maybe behind on the rent and maybe facing the eviction please share these episodes with them uh we are providing the best information we can as to how the process works and how to protect yourself if you find yourself in a situation where you can't pay your bills right now so back to today's episode again i feel very fortunate to have my good friend my law partner of many years and just a great guy edwards ed um he is a mississippi native has practiced law in mississippi for many years has served on the events justice court mississippi for many years he is a husband he is a father um and he's a great friend um and i'm sure i'm leaving out some important information about your background why don't you share with our viewers a little bit about ed woods well you uh you did a great job brad um yeah i've been uh practicing law here in mississippi for a little over 30 years uh and for all of that time uh most of it has been geared toward and in the last half of that time probably all of it has been geared towards trying to help our clients folks uh that come to see us deal with uh with overwhelming amounts of debt and uh get them uh back on a good uh track so i've done that and uh continuously and i have also uh been gosh it's coming up on 20 years now since uh since i first got elected to serve i've been elected uh re-elected four times so i guess maybe i'm doing something right for the folks in in the community uh so uh i've had that perspective too and i'll tell you uh it's it's very interesting uh to see uh especially when we talk about today's topic evictions uh to kind of see it through those different lenses it's it's one way you can we always look at it one way as an advocate for our clients uh but to see it from i guess the bench side or from the judicial or judge's point of view is really helpful um my wife tells me that you know wearing two hats makes me more rounded so um maybe she's right about that but i become more rounded but i think it's more in a physical type way as i get older rather than a uh well if she keeps feeding me like she does i'm probably gonna be right there so yeah well you have a wonderful wife renita is also a dear friend so let's start with just a little bit of an overview of what what role a justice court judge serves what what does the justice court do in mississippi well justice court really is uh kind of a broad spectrum type court it's provided for in our state constitution unlike some of the other courts that we have in mississippi and essentially we we have criminal jurisdiction in misdemeanor type matters traffic tickets simple assault things like that so there's there's jurisdiction for a justice court judge to hear that and then where the evictions come in is on the civil side of that jurisdiction um justice court in mississippi is a small claims court that means that you can sue and recover money if you're a debt collector for example uh up to 3 500 total if it's more than 3 500 you're seeking you have to go to a higher court but uh justice court there are 82 counties in mississippi there's 197 justice court judges staffing those 82 county courts and i would probably say that 90 plus of the evictions residential type evictions in mississippi uh are going to be initiated in justice court so we see a lot of that well for our viewers we we obviously at bonn and botus represent people with financial problems often we represent tenants people that may be having a hard time paying the rent we also represent a lot of small business owners and we realize that when a tenant is unable to pay their rent it also impacts the landlord and can create financial concerns for the landlord and we're going to talk about the eviction process and some of the relief available today from from both ends because we want people to understand the issue fully again last week we focused on the eviction process in alabama so if you are a viewer in alabama i think you'll find today's information interesting but to supplement it you should also go back to last week's episode with holly ray which is available either on our facebook page or on our website i encourage you to do that and today we're going to talk about the eviction process in mississippi and i want to kind of hit with a broad stroke first and then for our viewers information we're going to have some time for question and answer by ed so if you have questions about eviction procedure please post it and we'll try to get to it at the end of this broadcast and let's start by if you would just give us kind of a broad overview of how the eviction process works in mississippi um well you know it starts with a tenant an individual who is renting uh a residence perhaps it's an apartment maybe it's a house maybe it's a mobile home but uh uh the person who is in that is the tenant uh the person to whom rent paid is the landlord uh so in mississippi when a tenant gets behind on their rent obligation the law is pretty favorable to the landlords because essentially all the landlord really has to do when that landlord is seeking an eviction for non-payment of rent as opposed to seeking an eviction for other reasons like perhaps uh criminal activity or destroying the property or something like that those are other reasons that could lead to an eviction in mississippi but i would say the vast majority of evictions that come into justice court are just simply going to be the landlord coming to court uh saying uh hey the tenant's not paying his or her rent uh and we we want him out now what the law requires in mississippi uh is that the tenants simply give notice and very frequently they'll just post a letter on the door of the residence and say you said the tenant but you met the landlord correct has to give the notice yes i'm sorry that's all right i just yes the landlord is required to give the tenant notice but it's only a three-day notice and so a lot of times the landlord will post a notice on the door of the residence of the tenant and uh and it'll say hey your rent's 500 a month uh you're a couple months behind um we're we're gonna you know we're gonna seek to have you evicted uh if the if the tenant and landlord don't work it out from there then all really the law in mississippi requires the landlord to do is to come to justice court the court clerk's office has the forms it's essentially a form affidavit or sworn statement landlord fills it out with the you know uh with the numbers uh attaches a copy of what was posted on the door of the of the tenant's door uh and uh then that starts the lawsuit the eviction lawsuit now um mississippi law requires like every other state because there are constitutional questions here but the the tenant has to be given a proper notice that the landlord is seeking uh the eviction and that's through a service of of the copy of the affidavit uh owned the tenant that's usually done by constables in mississippi we have constables in each county and those it's a summons and the summons typically will have a date and time for the tenant to show up in court and essentially show cause why they shouldn't be evicted so the process starts okay so i want to i want to clarify there so in alabama we learned last week that once the tenant was served with the summons that a limited period of time to file an answer and only if they filed an answer was a court hearing scheduled do i understand you to say that the court hearing is scheduled automatically in mississippi yes yes and and like alabama mississippi has a a five-day period you've got five days after you've been served with process to file a response um but we do not in in mississippi uh i i feel pretty comfortable saying this for all the counties and i can say it's certainly for my county i'm never i never issue an order of eviction until uh the obviously the complaint the affidavit has been filed uh i'm satisfied that the tenant has received a proper notice of the proceedings and then that's placed on a dot on the court's docket and then uh on the date and time in the summons the case is called uh if the tenant is present they have an opportunity to to defend themselves if they're not present and and everything else appears to be in order only then will it will an eviction issue will the landlord have to be present in person to testify or is there attorney appearing sufficient both ways but most of the time in uh in mississippi you generally have either the landlord if it's a you know mom-and-pop type thing or uh if it's a more i guess you might say professional landlord maybe a a management company or something then generally the business manager for the local office there will be the witness who will testify but we have a rule in our mississippi justice courts that basically says if you're the plaintiff in other words if you're the landlord and you kicked all of this off and filed and you don't show up as noticed as show up for the for the hearing um the rules allow us to us judges to dismiss uh that uh affidavit and then they essentially have to start over so they're gonna be there okay got it so then the court hearing is held um unfortunately um the tenant um has a judgment of eviction entered against them what happens next so um after that um mississippi law provides for a process called a warrant of removal it's it's kind of on this on the same par with a garnishment or something like that and that's just a warrant from the court that says okay uh eviction order has been signed the warrant issues to the local constable uh and the constable goes out to execute the warrant which is essentially to deliver it on the tenant and say okay the judge has said that you have to leave you have to vacate the premises so you know please you know get your personal property uh and they paid the premises um now um you know tenants do still have some rights there even afterwards they can take an appeal um um but you know there's really no the law in mississippi does not recognize any legal defense any excuse if you will for non-payment of rent so you've either paid the rent or you haven't so i rarely see a tenant after the judgment of eviction but before the uh warrant of removal is uh is issued which is usually within a couple of days um rarely do you see a tenant coming back in uh trying to assert their rights at that point uh but they certainly could uh you know tender the rent to the landlord um and uh sometimes that will happen and then the warrant will never will never be executed because the the tenant has gone to the landlord and said look i know you got this judgment against me but you know it wasn't working or whatever here's here's the updated rent or here here's here's the rent that you owe so if the warrant issues and you said the sheriff goes out and or you know you need to move out court orders better and the tenant still doesn't move out at what point is the personal property actually moved out of the residence well that's a great question and that has been a raging debate among the justice court judges and constables since ever since day one for me uh some people interpret that warrant to mean that the constable actually you know assists the landlord in recovering possession by getting the chairs and pots and pans out i do not believe that's a proper reading of the law i i think the uh the gospel has only the constable is essentially there as a peace officer to allow the landlord to peaceably recover possession of the premises and the you know the the tenant the this the person who's having to move out is certainly entitled uh to take their personal property with them uh that's not part of what the landlord would get the landlord just gets possession of the property all right so one more question on the actual justice court procedure um i understood you to say earlier that justice court is is a small claims court has jurisdiction up to a certain dollar amount now does justice court have exclusive jurisdiction over evictions or i'm sure we're going to have a lot of tenants post code they're going to have a substantial amount of back rent well and above of 3 500 is it still a justice court matter at that point it is not once if a landlord wants uh you know or if the past due amount exceeds 3 500 then uh the landlord will have to go to either a county court now we have 82 counties in mississippi but only 19 of those counties have a county court that's kind of a court between the justice court level and our general courts of of trial jurisdiction which we call circuit courts in mississippi so when though when that amount is exceeded uh then the landlord needs to go to either county court uh or to circuit court in his or her county if there's no county court in that county and that's where the process and the process is going to be different there because the mississippi rules of civil procedure govern the proceedings in the county courts and the circuit courts in mississippi but in justice court we're still largely a creature of statute and we have a very abbreviated set of procedural rules but most evictions are going to take place in just a court mississippi that's correct i would i'd be shocked if you if less than 95 of them uh were in a court other than just school okay so just to recap here the landlord has to give the tenant three-day notice essentially an opportunity to cure and then the complaint can be filed in justice court to initiate the eviction proceeding once the the tenant is served the tenant has five days to respond and then an evidentiary hearing is conducted at which often the issue is whether or not the tenant is behind on their rent and if the tenant is behind a order of eviction is going to be entered by the court that's right now for for my clients for for our clients tenants you should know that the eviction process can be stayed through a bankruptcy filing up until that judgment of eviction is entered so if you're behind on your rent and you get this initial three-day notice from your landlord or even after you're served with summons up until that court hearing when the court actually enters the judgment if you seek bankruptcy protection that process is going to be stayed and is going to buy you at least another month if not longer than that and there are a variety of different types of bankruptcy often a chapter 13 reorganization type bankruptcy is going to be utilized in this type process but if you're in this situation again i encourage you to reach out our offices throughout mississippi and alabama are offering absolutely free initial consultations right now we'll do them by phone we'll do them from the comfort of your own home so you know it's free and it's easy you need to know your rights please reach out for help all right so eddie i i know that um during the eviction moratorium before the supreme court issued this opinion um the moratorium could be raised as a defense and the evictions just weren't going forward that process is now sped up so what what options are available now after the moratorium has been lifted to tenants that might be behind on their rent in mississippi you know unfortunately from a strictly legal standpoint i think those options are very limited now because as uh i may have mentioned before in mississippi there's no legally recognized excuse for not paying rent when it's due now having said that um you know landlords um can certainly get or tenants rather can get with their landlords and uh attempt some sort of workout where by the landlord will essentially stay his hand and not pursue the court uh or the legal proceeding in mississippi what i do is especially when i have a landlord tenant situation uh usually it's about a three to four week time period between the time that the landlord files that affidavit and starts the whole process to the time it actually gets on the docket before hearing uh i generally if a tenant just will call in to the court clerk and say hey i got this process you know i i can't make it i won't even ask them a question i'll give them one free continuance so if you're a tenant in mississippi in that situation don't ignore uh that process reach out to the court ask for additional time i mean you know a lot of judges were sensitive to the fact that this is a person who may be about to be put out on the street nobody no caring decent person wants to do that to anybody else i don't um and you know i am very generous very liberal and most of the justice court judges in mississippi are also uh to give tenants a little more time maybe they've just gone through a period where their earnings were depressed really going to get back on track so uh you know that's always a possibility just to participate in the process enough to get yourself some extra time now obviously that depends on the landlord being willing to go that route uh and if the landlord's not willing to go that route then what uh brad what you were just saying about going through the bankruptcy process in particular chapter 13 is probably going to be in mississippi your best bet to stay that eviction you know longer or as long as we could do it under the bankruptcy code so i want to underscore what edwards just said folks you've got to be proactive don't just sit back with your head in the sand if you want to proceed in justice court i don't ignore that summons don't ignore that notice from your landlord respond ask for a hearing ask for a continuance if you need some time to get things in place but you can you you have certain rights and you can extend the period of time that you're going to be within the property that you're renting um and if if bankruptcy is something that you want to consider certainly reach out to one of our offices but do it quickly because there's only a short window of time in which you can stay the eviction proceedings and i also want to talk though i know the federal government has made rent relief money available to the states and i know in alabama at least now that money is flowing pretty well and it's been a great benefit not only to tenants but landlords are applying for that money because the money is intended it's not so much intended to help or not solely intended just to help renters it's intended to put money into the economy so landlords should be helping their tenants to apply for this rent relief money what can you tell me about how that money is being used in mississippi right now i think unfortunately and i guess we could go on and on about this but unfortunately i i don't know whether landlords just were kind of gearing the headlights so to speak when all of this happened and didn't fully investigate their rights to get federal money i don't think quite frankly that a whole lot of landlords in mississippi did that now let me say this uh from the very beginning of the cdc more time the one we're talking about that just just expired that dates back to september of last year and so um in a couple of my continuing judicial education seminars that i also have to attend um we heard from an attorney in jackson who was representing larger landlords statewide and he was lamenting the fact that it appeared that landlords were not seeking uh that kind of compensation and so um you know i don't think that um it has been utilized nearly as much in mississippi if i'm if you know hearing that uh attorney that's representing those commercial landlords or representing groups and landlord association groups well i certainly i certainly want to speak to landlords um if your tenants are behind there are millions of dollars worth of money available to help tenants who are behind and again that money is not just for the tenants it needs to be applied for by the landlord and tenant together um and that money is intended to help you as landlords also by allowing you to keep operating your your business your property so reach out inquire i reach out to elected officials reach out to state officials and find out where that money is and how it can be accessed it's important and i learned something interesting i've practiced law in alabama and of course as you know i'm licensed in mississippi too but um i've been practicing a lot in alabama since 1986 a long time and i learned from holly ray that the courts in alabama have the ability to seal the records concerning the eviction proceeding um if it's requested um so that you know if the tenant has just had some situation where they're behind it by a little bit they they can't pay their rent they're being evicted that record is sealed so it won't impact them when they look to rent somewhere else is there anything similar in mississippi not to my knowledge uh you know our our proceedings like virtually everywhere else uh in mississippi are subject to you know public records requests and and and generally considered public records to begin with really the only court in mississippi that i know of that has that level of protection is going to be the court's court that deals with juvenile justice issues so i don't not i'm pretty sure there's nothing like that in mississippi that's interesting that's very interesting i'd encourage you um holly ray shared with us that she actually wrote the brief that's been used throughout the state of alabama and she cited a decision that was made concerning one of our former governors in alabama and how his uh domestic records were sealed and courts have found that his grounds to help people that may be high on their rent i suspect if you know that might be a way in other words you know i i believe a chancellor in mississippi for sure if we were going to have something like that or if that kind of request was made you know you might be able to to go that to go that route but as far as just a broad statutory right i am not aware of anything like that in mississippi i've never other than other than juvenile justice courts we've our courts have always operated out in the open i mean i'm going to get you a copy of that brief just saying we're good at it i'd love to see it both in your capacity as a judge and uh with bounded bonus representing people that are behind on the rent so eric let's talk about from a bankruptcy perspective um somebody comes to see you in your capacity as an attorney here upon in bonus they're behind on their rent and they've received a notice tacked on their door yesterday that they're behind on their rent they need they've got three days to cure it what can you do at bonnie bodis as an attorney on their behalf well there's a couple things we can do um when that happens and it does happen um first thing i need to find out about is who the landlord is if it's uh if it's somebody that i know or perhaps know the lawyer that represents that landlord um maybe a call or an email to that lawyer saying hey i'm representing uh you know mr jones and uh he's he's behind on his rent we know he's behind on his rent we're we're working with him uh so i might be able to uh buy some time so to speak uh doing that uh the other thing um um is if if they bring me a summons uh and i look at it and i see that hey this is coming up in a couple of weeks uh sometimes i'll get them to uh call and request a continuance um a lot of times i won't do that i'll just tell them hey call the clerk's office and say this uh and they'll do it and get a continuance that way that gives us a little bit more time to uh assess the situation a lot of times uh folks that are having that kind of problem uh need a a bankruptcy petition either chapter 7 or chapter 13 petition for lots of other reasons maybe they're behind on a car and those kinds of things so that gives us a little bit more time um we can uh i don't know how if if you guys are doing this much in alabama but over here our judges our bankruptcy judges don't really like this but you know we can file what's called an emergency petition and essentially that is just kind of the first few pages of a bankruptcy petition to invoke the automatic stay the protection uh and then you know the courts generally give us about 14 rules give us about 14 days to come back in and finish filing the case the schedules and all that uh we've done that before um but i will say this um regardless of you know what uh avenue you take uh generally speaking uh you know but being behind on the rent is not something that can be um you know put off for a great deal of time i mean you need to get on it you we need to either try to deal with the landlord file a bankruptcy petition request hearings request continuances because it's it is a time sensitive matter yeah absolutely i want to emphasize um you know bankruptcy should never be your first option but if you're facing an eviction and you need to protect your home for your family it may be the only option that you have um but we'll certainly try to talk to the landlord we'll certainly talk to you about other options but bankruptcy may be the only option you have to keep your family in your home for a longer period of time as i said earlier though you need to act quickly because once that judgment of eviction is entered the bankruptcy stay will no longer slow down the proceedings will no longer keep you in your home any longer but when you're being sued for an eviction keep in mind that the landlord is not only suing just to move you out of the property but the landlord's also suing to collect back rent um and as ed well pointed out if you're buying on your rent you may have other financial issues we don't want you on top of everything else facing a garnishment down the line so even if it's too late to stop the eviction from moving forward you may want to consult with one of us about bankruptcy options to deal with the financial the back rent the unpaid rent in any other legal obligations you may have um so to our viewers i'm going to talk for just a little bit here and then we're going to come back to ed and ed's going to be available to answer questions i've had some questions coming in ed that i'm going to give you a chance to answer but i want all of our viewers just to recap things my name is brad botes my guest is ed woods we're both attorneys with the bond and botes law offices um ed manages all of our offices in mississippi we're in jackson we're in vicksburg we're in hattiesburg but we're essentially representing people throughout the state right now because just about everything is being done virtually court hearings um just about everything in the bankruptcy process is being done virtually and i like to tell people in the 30 plus years i've been doing this it's the first time somebody can file a bankruptcy from start to finish without ever leaving their coaching side i would have never predicted it brad or different times yep but but folks whether it's an eviction whether it's a potential foreclosure and the moratorium on foreclosures is also going away if you're behind on car payments and worried about a possible repossession if you're worried about a wage garnishment all of these are issues that can be addressed by a good competent attorney at the bond and botes law offices we've been helping people with financial problems for over 30 years we treat our clients like family if you come to see one of us uh you're gonna talk to an attorney one-on-one directly your conversation is confidential and we're just going to answer your questions and make some suggestions there's no cost and there's no obligation but the consultation is important so that you know what your options are folks i know what the anxiety of dealing with financial issues are on the inability to pay your bills is like it can create stress it can create sleepless nights it can create marital problems folks it's just not worth it there are options available the law provides options for you and and we can explain those to you so you at least know what your options are there's no nothing going to be done by just having that conversation other than that you'll know your rights we'll talk to you about whether or not we can keep you in your apartment or keep your home we'll talk to you about how we can help you keep your car and perhaps reduce the monthly payments we'll talk to you about how to stop a wage garnishment but but nothing moves forward until you say uh mr woods uh brad this is what i want to do i want to move forward with this um and a lot of times we can help you with you know there's certainly no charge for the initial consultation and a lot of times we can get the bankruptcy process started without any money up front so so please reach out to us for help um you are reviewing the weekly bonnimotus facebook live we have focused last weekend this week on the end of the eviction moratorium the temporary moratorium that was put in place by the cdc was found unconstitutional by the united states supreme court just a few weeks back so evictions have started back up in alabama and mississippi where our offices are located in last week's episode we focused on the eviction process in alabama an excellent guest holly ray who is the managing attorney with legal services alabama in their huntsville office just provided some great information on how the process works in alabama what defenses you may have available rent relief programs that may be available those that that episode is available on our facebook page and it's also available at the bond and botes website uh we encourage you if you or someone you know or care about is facing an issue with unpaid rent or potentially eviction in alabama to view that episode this week we're focusing on evictions in mississippi and my good friend and partner ed woods who's joining us today has served for a couple of decades now as a justice court judge in mississippi he's also represented individuals for a long long time who are unable to pay their bills and ed just gave a great overview of how the eviction process works in mississippi at what points you can act to protect your rights how you can buy yourself more time in in your apartment or in the home you're renting or mobile home you're renting so so the information shared was just invaluable i encourage you to share it with anyone that may be impacted by these type issues the bond and botes law offices again are located throughout alabama and mississippi and we're offering absolutely free initial consultations so at this point in our show we go to questions from our viewers and we've had some questions coming in ed and i'm going to give you a chance to uh to address these um so the first question is is one i get a lot um what if my landlord filed an eviction against me while the moratorium was in effect and got a court order evicting me um so so the order was entered and that moratorium was in effect do i have any rights right now this person wants to know um that's a great question um if the in mississippi if the eviction was filed during the moratorium period um uh the and we haven't talked about this the rule did require that tenants make uh um you might say a brief showing that uh they you know didn't have any other options that they're they're they weren't able to pay their rent because they their job was covet impacted or whatever um i'm sure there were there were some instances in my court there were some instances i guess everywhere where uh during the moratorium eviction filed tenet did not comply with the rule now this is the lieutenant the person being evicted did not comply with the rule uh which meant that the court could proceed uh with an eviction so if that process went through that way um you know unless you have unless you're within a time period where you might could appeal which is generally 30 days there's not a whole lot you can do about that um now if if the order you know if the eviction was filed and and the order was stayed then i think you're as long as long as the landlord hasn't been back to court after the expiration of the moratorium i think you're still okay now that doesn't mean you you don't have to pay rent you know you have to pay rent and you by the time the landlord gets back to court uh that rent may be five months worth of rent or more so you may be faced with a huge amount but um but that would be uh i think how it would go here so to this viewer it's yet another instance um where you need to to act on your own if you're served with an eviction whether it was during the moratorium or now the moratorium has been found unconstitutional you've got to speak up you have to raise the moratorium as a defense if for some reason an eviction was filed and you um or another tenant didn't raise the moratorium as a defense didn't go into court and say look i've been affected by code i can't pay my rent the moratorium protects me and the judge may have ordered the eviction and it's probably too late to do much about it at this point i still encourage you though to reach out to one of our offices because uh in addition to facing uh being removed from your home you don't want to be garnished for that unpaid rent at some point in the future and i think that's that's the big danger there uh yes you may have lost your right to possession but you still have that money judgment there that can hurt you if you don't deal with it next question after an order evicting me what can i do what if i don't have another place to go well uh you can always ask for an appeal in justice court i would strongly suggest that if you're in that position that you immediately get some help with uh with an appeal from justice court it's not terribly difficult and any general practice lawyer can read the rule and follow it but there are some rules that you need to follow and if you can get the order appealed uh generally uh you can you know hold on to possession of the premises a little bit longer and you're gonna get a brand new hearing in a in the so-called appeals court uh by a brand new judge um who's gonna look at the case anew so appeal rights there would be extremely important or like we were saying earlier um you know maybe maybe you can seek some bankruptcy relief even though we know the automatic stay doesn't apply after the eviction order um i don't know brad in in some instances i haven't tried this and now in mississippi but you know as you and i know bankruptcy judges can state proceedings through other means under the bankruptcy code and not just the normal automatic stay but all of that is going to require some quick legal work that is not a do-it-yourself situation at all you know eric at the risk of sounding like a broken record folks there are going to be a lot of evictions in the months to come and there are going to be a lot of foreclosure proceedings because this moratorium these moratoriums that have existed against evictions and against foreclosures have been lifted or will be lifted very shortly and unfortunately and this really worries me as someone who's represented consumers for decades i'm afraid there are going to be a lot of folks that won't have a place to live um you'll find families living together um but i've got to keep repeating myself there are protections available if you raise them early please if there's any chance you're facing eviction if there's any chance you're facing a foreclosure give us a call and give us a call it's free you'll talk to an experienced attorney with bonnie bodus and we'll do it over the phone or by video however you're comfortable let us explain your rights before the eviction or before the foreclosure so we can keep you in your home for as long as possible we're not going to do anything that you don't want done people think that they're necessarily going to lose their home lose their property if they seek bankruptcy protection i can tell you folks and and you can view our other episodes where we've gone into more detail about the different types of bankruptcy but we're not going to let that happen to you we're going to take care of you and you're going to know what your options are moving forward but you've got to reach out for help call the number on your screen visit our website gather more information we have a form you can fill out on our website and we'll reach out to you but please talk to one of our attorneys and be proactive folks all right so next question ed um i'm behind on my right now but my landlord has not taken me to court yet what are my rights um you know here's what i would tell people uh on that um i'm always i've always been a proponent of people trying to work their disputes out um you know just you know a lot of times with a kind word or with a gesture to your landlord uh where you're saying you know listen i am not trying to say that i'm not behind on rent and i'm not trying to say that you're not entitled to your rent i get it but you know i lost my job to covet or my spouse lost his job due to covid um we we're getting back on our feet uh can we pay you an extra 50 a month for the next several months or something i mean there is never a um a time when you know that is unlikely to to to be helpful now it the landlord can certainly say no i want my rent or i want possession they have the legal right to say that um but if you're in that spot um i don't see a downside to at least reaching out to your landlord and trying to reach an amicable solution to the problem all right and then if you do that and it doesn't work it's time to talk to an attorney that's what we're saying if you've been watching this last everybody get in touch with competent legal counsel because if you're in that period you don't know exactly when the landlord's going to run down to justice court and file his affidavit and off you go so again to reiterate and re-reiterate what brad's been saying please don't sit on this stuff reach out if the landlord is not going to be nice to you or rude to you or won't agree with you okay i get it um but we can do something about it uh if they want and and i think that's that's you know i've told people that many times before uh a lot of times people come to us behind on rent but they got a whole lot of other issues too we're gonna file a case for them anyway but let's just pretend this is a person who's got everything else under control it's just the rent is the last thing they're trying to do reach out to the landlord okay reach out they'll either say yes or no if they say yes you'll work it out if they say no get some help you know i couldn't agree more with what you're saying ed and this doesn't just apply to a landlord-tenant situation and i'm speaking to both folks that are unable to pay their bills and and those that might maybe trying to collect you know unpaid rent from a tenant or um somebody that might be behind on another payment you know scripture tells us you know if you've got a if you've got a quarrel with somebody if you think somebody's done you wrong first go talk to that individual folks you know i'm going to help you if you can't get work done on your own as an attorney i'm going to offer you whatever help the laws will allow but always first try to work things out um like so much else if you just open up a dialogue and talk to one another you can get things worked out so please try to do that first but know that we're here and know that you need to act quickly if you're behind on your rent at least give us a call so you know what your options are um all right so next question um what if my landlord did get it says government money so i assume they meant rent relief money during the moratorium can i still be evicted now um well i know during the moratorium period and if i remember that rule correctly um the landlords could get into quite a bit of trouble if they took money uh rent relief money so to speak and then decided they're gonna also try to collect from the tenant uh now that that now that was all part of that rule the supreme court's rules are unconstitutional and i'm no constitutional scholar but i remember from khan law in law school that if a statute's ruled unconstitutional it's unconstitutional from the start um so the next thing i would say is that if the landlord did receive rent let's say you suspect that the landlord did get some rental assistance then it's all a question of d did that amount of money that the landlord received get you up to date on your rent if it did the landlord no longer has a right to evict you yeah you know your current even though it didn't come from you it was paid on your behalf and your current so uh i would certainly say this if somebody comes to my court i've never had it so far and says hey listen i know i'm here he's saying i don't you know i'm behind two thousand dollars on rent but i'm pretty sure he's got you know he got two thousand dollars worth of money so i'm gonna you know the landlord's to have to respond to that allegation yeah and i you know it sounds like rent relief programs may be just a little bit more active in alabama than in mississippi and he said that if you're in mississippi and you're behind on your rent or you're a landlord the money's there it's been made available by the federal government so try to pursue it but the way most of these programs are all of them the rent relief programs work that i know of is that both the landlord and the tenant have to work together to seek the money so if the landlord asks for the money that the tenant needs to be involved so there should be some way to pin down whether that money was used to catch up your rent it's not going to take care of current rent payments it's not going to take care of payments that weren't made right so uh you're going to need to do a little bit of work there and you may need an attorney's assistance and again we'll be glad to help you if you're in that position just reach out to to us uh use the phone number that's available here on the screen or go to our website and arrange for a free consultation and we're running a little bit short but i want to see if any of these other questions may be important here so here's a good one that i'll add into what's the best way to contact either ed or brad if i need help and i'm going to speak to this i have but at the bottom of the screen right now you have a number that will allow you if you call that number we'll set up an initial consultation with you with one of our attorneys in in our location that's most convenient to you or if you go to our website bonnievodas.com you may want to gather a little bit more information there is an abundance of information blog post videos uh quite a bit of information on the different ways that we can help you uh and then you can complete a form there at our website and request a consultation and we'll reach out to you and help get that set up but folks these are tough times they're really tough times we've been through things over the last year and a half that i just never dreamt we'd be through i'm ahead and i have been friends for a long long time we've practiced law and we thought we'd seen everything yeah but this last year has been different folks and we know a lot of you have had financial problems you may not have been able to work you may not have been able to run your business if you're a small business owner you may be behind on your rent you may be behind on your mortgage payments right now now is the time to reach out to help we want to help you um that's why we're offering absolutely free initial consultations as i said earlier first try to work you know with your landlord if you're a landlord try to work with your tenants see if you can't get the issue resolved without getting attorneys involved but if that doesn't work give us a call i can assure you that we're going to treat you just like we would one of our family members if they called and wanted to know what to do we're going to let you know what your options are we're not going to charge you at all for that initial consultation where we go over your situation with you um that they're you know the laws whether they be bankruptcy or outside of bankruptcy are not the same for everybody that they impact everyone differently based upon your situation and we want to help you eddie i know all of our folks in mississippi have been working hard to try to help people is there anything you might want to add with respect to what's going on in mississippi right now and how we can be of assistance people i i would i would just uh expand on what you're saying if if you're listening to this broadcast now or you're watching it later and you're having rent problems eviction problems or any other types of financial problems that are keeping you up at night or or causing stress and straining your family or turmoil in your family please please i know brad i know you guys are doing this in alabama we're doing this in mississippi if you you call us if an attorney is available right then to get on the line with you if i'm available right then to get on the line with you and you're calling my office you will hear from me okay um uh because we realize that these are have been very trying times and that people are very stressed out and they don't need help next week a lot of times they need help now uh and so please please just reach out and if if i'm not available to talk to you on the phone right then um they're going to tell you when i'm available and i'm going to be calling you back uh and it's usually the same day ed thank you for those additional words you know i just it's on my heart right now i want to speak specifically you know if you're if you're experiencing marital problems because of unpaid bills right now um you know if you see your spa sleep um not reacting to uh situations to come up properly because of the stress they're under you know reach out together um talk to us together but do it together we want you to have a happy family we want you we want you to get your finances under control and we want to help you come up with a plan ed thank you so much for joining us today ed woods is one of the best attorneys in mississippi i don't know if i can get away with all of this with the uh with the disclaimers we're supposed to put as attorneys but i can tell you nobody's going to be concerned more about you or try to try harder to help you than ed woods and and the rest of our staff in mississippi and with all of our attorneys in alabama at bond and botes as you see on your screen right now faith family finances are things that are very important to us until next week so long and god bless all of you thank you ed thanks brad