A default judgment rendered before the defendant’s answer is due is erroneous and
constitutes a void judgment. Conaway v. Lopez, 880 S.W.2d 448, 449 (Tex. App.―Austin 1994,
writ ref’d) (and citations contained therein). Likewise, a default judgment may not be rendered
after a defendant has actually filed an answer. Padrino Maritime, Inc. v. Rizo, 130 S.W.3d 243,
246 (Tex. App.―Corpus Christi 2004, no pet.). It is reversible error to enter a default judgment
after the defendant has filed an answer, even if that answer is filed after the answer date but
before the default judgment is entered. In re $475,001.16, 96 S.W.3d 625, 627 (Tex. App.―
Houston [1st Dist.] 2002, no pet.).
Answering this after your edited comment:
Landlord has absolutely no obligation to sign off on a form that provides you assistance. They also have no obligation to accept payment from you or the charity after they file. Once they file for eviction, they can elect to refuse any settlement offeres in order to regain possession of their unit and get you out of there. She can ignore your calls, lie, do anything she wants. Honestly, its in her best interest to not communicate with you outside of court.
You're getting evicted for not paying late fees. That means you were an extreme burden to the management office's operations. Not at all surprised they would want you gone. How did you get enough late fees to get evicted from them? You must have intentionally not paid rent several months and then completely ignored their requests for late fees.
Just as courts rarely side with landlords who refuse to make make repairs and are negligent, the rarely side with tenants who refuse to pay rent in accordance with the lease.
It is not the responsibility of the landlord to be available when you need her/him. The way I see it from
your explanation, is that the landlord does not want to deal with late fees and unpaid rent any longer.
She probably has rented the apartment to another tenant and is anxious for you to move out.
You are viewing your problem from the wrong prospective. The landlord has not been negligent. She wants
the problem tenant out. It is her choice.
Your landlord does not have to do anything to help you out. You are in debt to her and she wants you out of the property. Not a lot you can do about it except learn not to get behind with your rent really in the future.
Why would you think that the landlord is obligated to sign any papers for you? The landlord is not required to accept any outside assistance that you get nor is she required to sign anything.
Unfortunately I cannot type out the whole situation that is going on between my landlord and I due to limited space on here, but I will try and give you the jist of it.
I am being evicted for late fees that have built up in my account, my court date is now this Tuesday. For the past (almost) two weeks, I have been trying to work with my landlord/the county assistance office, but my landlord has been completely negligent in returning phone calls, signing papers, returning faxes, etc.
The county assistance office/myself are doing everything in our powers to get my landlord to sign off on papers so I can receive rental assistance so that I am not evicted. The landlord, for the past two weeks, has ignored my phone calls, claimed she was never faxed anything, (even though the assistance office said they faxed the papers and even called her beforehand), and had her secretary lie that she was out of the office even though an hour previous she was in her office with lunch when I physically brought her the papers to sign.
Anyways, now my court day is Tuesday which leaves me with technically one day to get her to sign the papers, run them to the assistance office, and then give her the money. I do not have faith in this since she has been ignoring me this whole time. My question is, when it is time to go to court, do I tell the judge all of this? At this point if I am evicted, it is due to the landlords negligence because I would have the money for her if she signed the papers.
