If you are facing immediate eviction, lockout, or emergency homelessness, help is available right now:
- Emergency Shelter & Rental Assistance: Call or text 2-1-1 or visit 211.org (free, confidential, available 24/7 nationwide).
- Free Legal Aid Finder: Find local Legal Services Corporation (LSC) attorneys at LSC Legal Aid Directory.
- National Domestic Violence Hotline: If safety is an issue, call 1-800-799-7233 (1-800-799-SAFE) or text "START" to 88788.
The Eviction Papers Name the Wrong Tenant
Notices and filings with the wrong name or the wrong adult tenant raise procedural questions.
What this page covers
- Why name accuracy matters in the notice-and-filing chain.
- The difference between curable paperwork defects and fatal ones.
- How to point out naming defects in your answer.
- Documents tying you (or the named person) to the tenancy.
Build the chronological record first
Whichever side of the dispute you are on, decide the case on documents: a dated timeline, every notice and response, payment records, photographs, and messages preserved in original form. Reconstructing this months later is the single most common failure point in self-represented cases.
Confirm every deadline at the source
Deadlines and fees in this area are set by statute and court rules and they change. Verify the current rule on the official judiciary or government self-help portal for your jurisdiction before you file anything, or ask the clerk. This page is general procedural information, not legal advice, and creates no attorney-client relationship.
How this fits the rest of the site
Use the guides for the full walkthrough, the calculators for numbers and deadlines, and the jurisdiction pages for where your matter is actually heard. Together they form a complete preparation workflow before you file or respond.