A tenant must pay the unpaid rent into the court registry in order to file a defense to the eviction

Attorney Caleb Maggio: The court has actually put a safeguard, rather the legislator has in the statute, which requires the tenant to give the rent they owe to the court before they even file their answer in defense of that eviction. If they don't do that, the court will kick back their answer and you'll get that default judgment against the tenant.

Attorney Tom Olsen: Oh, I forgot about that part. If the tenant is saying, "Oh, I didn't pay the rent because the air conditioner is not working," or so on and so forth, they cannot even put up that defense until they put the full rent into the court registry.

Attorney Caleb Maggio: There's only one thing they can do if they don't put the rent in and that's do a motion to determine rent, Tom. Basically, all that is you get a hearing in front of a judge and the only thing that hearing is concerned with is how much rent do they actually owe. In order to do that, the tenant has to have a basis as to why the rent alleged in the three-day notice is wrong and they have to attach documentation supporting their allegations. At the end of that hearing, the judge will determine what rent is, and thereafter, the tenant is still going to have to deposit that amount with the court before they can file their defenses.