How Your Answering Service Can Help With Court Documentation in Eviction Cases

Documentation is key when taking a nuisance tenant to court for eviction. One often over-looked vender that can be of great assistance in providing documentation is your answering service. If your answering service has up-to-date equipment and software, they should be able to document all calls, including nuisance and complaint calls. In addition, their telephone agents should be able to convey specific instructions to tenants calling about after hour’s noise complaints. For instance, your service should be able to tell callers a message has been taken, but that they should file a complaint at the office during regular business hours.

The key is to get your answering service account set up to capture the right information, and give proper instructions. First, have them document all calls, even calls that are not considered an emergency. These messages do not need to be paged out to your on-call person, but can be sent the next business day. It’s also important for the service to capture time of call, and the incoming phone number when possible. This will show what time the call came, and where it came from. Second, have them provide a morning sweep of all account activity that can be faxed or e-mailed to you. Third, tell them what information you want conveyed to irate callers. In addition, most modern answering services also archive calls, and their archives can stretch back years. Even if you don’t save your answering service messages, they should be able to go back and retrieve old information.

In court, your answering service is often considered a neutral observer. If they are able to provide the proper documentation showing that a number of tenants have called to complain about noise from one tenant at late hours, it can go far helping you making the case.