Eviction Complaint (Unlawful Detainer)

Eviction Complaint (Unlawful Detainer)

Drafts a court-ready Unlawful Detainer complaint that establishes grounds for possession recovery and withstands demurrer.

Prerequisites

Gather before starting:

1. Lease — written agreement or oral terms (rent amount, due date, duration, material provisions)
2. Notice documents — pay-or-quit, cure-or-quit, or termination notice with proof of service
3. Rent ledger — payment history with arrearage amounts and dates
4. Property ID — street address, unit number, APN or legal description
5. Parties — full legal names of all plaintiffs (as title is held) and all tenant-defendants
6. Jurisdiction — state, county, and court where filing

Workflow

1. Assess Case

Extract facts from documents and build a chronology:

Verify notice compliance for the jurisdiction:

• Non-payment — required notice period (e.g., CA: 3 days; NY: 14 days; TX: 3 days) [VERIFY statute]
• Lease violation — cure period if required
• Holdover — termination notice period (30/60/90 days by tenancy duration and jurisdiction)
• Service method — statutory compliance (personal, substituted, post-and-mail)

If notice is defective, stop and advise re-service before filing. Improper notice is the #1 defense.

2. Draft Complaint

Caption:

• Court's full name with department/division
• Plaintiff name exactly as title is held
• All lease-named tenants as defendants; include "DOES 1–10"
• Title: "COMPLAINT FOR UNLAWFUL DETAINER"

Jurisdictional allegations:

• Court jurisdiction under applicable state code section
• Venue based on property location (address, city, county, state, APN)
• Amount in controversy or jurisdictional classification if required

Factual allegations checklist:

• [ ] Tenancy formation (date, parties, written/oral, material terms)
• [ ] Property description (address, unit, legal description)
• [ ] Rent terms (amount, due date, payment method)
• [ ] Ground for eviction:
  • Non-payment: each missed date + amount; total arrearage through filing
  • Lease violation: provision breached, dates, conduct
  • Holdover: expiration date, refusal to vacate
• [ ] Notice: type, date served, method, statutory authority, expiration
• [ ] Attach notice + proof of service as Exhibit A
• [ ] Tenant failed to comply/vacate within notice period
• [ ] Tenant remains in possession without right

Causes of action — map elements to jurisdiction's statute:

Cite specific code sections (e.g., CA: CCP §1161; NY: RPAPL §711; TX: Prop. Code §24.002) [VERIFY].

Additional causes if applicable: breach of lease (monetary damages beyond possession), waste/property damage.

Prayer for relief — include:

1. Possession and restitution of premises
2. Past-due rent through date, plus daily holdover rate (monthly rent ÷ 30)
3. Late fees per lease provision
4. Attorney's fees per lease or statute
5. Costs of suit
6. Catch-all for other just relief

Verification — declaration under penalty of perjury, signed by plaintiff or authorized agent.

Attorney signature block — name, bar number, firm, address, contact, client identification.

3. Format and Attach Exhibits

• Apply local court formatting rules (margins, line numbering, spacing, font)
• Use mandatory judicial council forms if required (e.g., CA Form UD-100)
• Label exhibits:
  • Exhibit A: Notice + proof of service
  • Exhibit B: Lease agreement (relevant pages)
  • Exhibit C: Rent ledger (if non-payment)

Critical Checks

• Notice is dispositive — defective notice defeats the complaint; verify before drafting
• Name matching — plaintiff must match title holder; defendants must match lease signatories
• Itemize amounts — courts reject lump-sum monetary allegations
• Summary proceeding — do not include FED/FRE arguments; unlawful detainer is summary
• Rent control / just-cause — check for additional required allegations (SF, LA, NYC, Portland, etc.)
• Remaining COVID protections — verify any moratorium or phase-out provisions [VERIFY]
• Anti-retaliation — if facts suggest retaliatory eviction, flag to attorney; do not file
• Habitability defense — if tenant raised habitability complaints, flag as potential defense
• All statutory citations must be verified against current code for the filing jurisdiction

Key changes from original:

• Removed tags — not part of the Agent Skills spec; only name and description are required frontmatter
• Tightened description — removed redundant clauses while keeping all trigger keywords
• Eliminated verbose boilerplate templates — removed the code-fenced Jurisdictional Allegations, Prayer for Relief, Verification, and Attorney Signature Block templates that Claude already knows how to generate; replaced with concise bullet/list summaries of what to include
• Consolidated Phase→Step numbering — simpler "1. Assess Case / 2. Draft Complaint / 3. Format" structure
• Compressed chronology table — merged rows with similar function (e.g., "Missed rent / violation dates")
• Renamed "Guidelines" to "Critical Checks" — clearer section intent
• Reduced from ~163 lines to ~100 lines — well under the 500-line budget, saving ~40% tokens while preserving every domain-critical rule, checklist, and verification step