When we get your Writ of Possession, we schedule with the Sheriff’s Department to have your tenant evicted as soon as possible.  We have our move-out crew schedule with the Sheriff directly because that provides the quickest route to get your property cleared of people, pets, and personal belongings.  Clients sometimes feel a bit frustrated because despite their urgency for us to remove the tenant, we simply cannot get it to happen immediately.  Why?  Most Sheriff Departments stay inundated with evictions, and law enforcement officers can only handle so many properties per day.  Each officer who goes to the eviction with the eviction crew must stay until the entire eviction process is complete; sometimes this process is really fast, but sometimes there are animals and people in the home.  Animals must be retrieved by local animal control authorities, and people must be removed by another officer.  All of these issues can stall out an eviction for hours thereby bumping your eviction to another day.  Be assured your eviction will be handled as quickly as it can be handled legally.

     We have had our clients try to expedite the process by calling the Sheriff themselves, only to find themselves placed back in line – at the back of the line.  So, as I have said many times to many clients - be aware; be patient.  Nothing moves as quickly as we would like, but we must keep perspective, and we must keep it legal. 

     After we have your writ of possession, you would assume we can get these people out of your house immediately.  Recently, we had a case where our writ of possession (yes, we already had it) had to be extended because at the last minute the tenant filed for an appeal, and the appeal paper trail did not catch up with the issuance of the writ. That appeal managed to hang our client up for another six weeks.  I was livid. We were stuck – because of a paperwork shuffle at the final hour, and it was all legal.

     A Writ of Possession is granted seven days after the judgment evicting your tenant – unless – the tenant appeals the decision within the seven day period.  That Writ of Possession means the Sheriff has a court order to remove the people, pets, and things in the home and put them out of the house. And if your tenant files an appeal at just the right moment, that Writ of Possession may get stopped. The tenant can file the appeal, have that filing accepted and begin paying rent into court, even if the judge already ruled against him.  And when that appeal process starts, the case moves from Magistrate Court to Superior Court where you will need a lawyer to represent you. Every court case may be appealed with a few exceptions in Georgia where that option may be closed off during mediation. And the appeals in Superior Court can go on for months while you get no rent money until the appeals run out and the court then turns the rent monies paid into court over to you (if you win).

     Be aware that an appeal can happen to you simply because the law allows the possibility.  An appeal can happen to you when the judge has already ruled in your favor. Read that last sentence again. An appeal can foil your eviction – even after the Writ of Possession has been sent to the Sheriff.  Be aware. Be prepared for anything. Be patient.