How the steps and deadlines work — and why some steps deliberately have no date
Every step on a Seayora eviction case carries the statute behind it, whether it blocks the steps after it, and where its deadline comes from — statutory, set by the court, set by your lease, or an estimate. A step Seayora has not verified gets no due date at all, on purpose.
A case is a spine of ordered steps grouped into phases. The phases are the same everywhere; the steps inside them are the ones your state and city actually require, in the order they require them.
| Phase | What happens in it |
|---|---|
| Preparation | Everything before a notice exists. The arrears are confirmed, the grace period is checked, a payment plan is offered where your settings require one, and anything that would sink the case is surfaced. |
| Notice | The statutory notice is served and its cure period runs. Nothing later can be marked done until this is finished. |
| Filing | The complaint is filed with the court, by you or your attorney. Seayora records the case number and the date; it does not file. |
| Service | The summons and complaint are served on the resident by a method the state permits. |
| Hearing | The hearing date, the location, and what the court decided. |
| Judgment | The judgment and, where one is entered, the amount. |
| Possession | The warrant or writ, and the date possession was actually recovered. |
City rules are layered on, not swapped in
Where Seayora holds a rule for your city as well as your state, the city’s steps are inserted into the state sequence at the right phase. They do not replace the state’s. Philadelphia’s mandatory diversion program, Seattle’s just-cause requirements and New York City’s housing-court specifics all sit inside the state process rather than beside it — which is how they work in practice, and getting it the other way round produces a checklist missing half the law.
Where a deadline comes from, and why it is always shown
Every day count carries its basis, and the two most important ones are not the same fact:
| Basis | What it means |
|---|---|
| Statutory | A statute sets this period. The citation is on the step. This is a deadline. |
| Set by the court | The court’s own rules or local practice set it. Check it against your court — it can change without a statute changing. |
| Set by your lease | Your lease governs. Seayora reads the term from the lease of record. |
| Estimate | How long this usually takes. It is not a deadline, and Seayora will not compute a date from it. |
That last row is the one that matters. A step whose timing is an estimate gets no due date at all — because a date on a screen reads as a fact, and a wrong deadline in this domain loses somebody their home or their case. An honest gap is better than a plausible number.
Business days are counted as business days
Where a statute counts business days, Seayora counts business days and says so on the step. Florida’s three-day rent demand excludes Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays; a plain three-day count understates the period the tenant actually has. Seayora’s arithmetic skips weekends and cannot see public holidays, which is exactly why the basis is printed next to every computed date rather than the date being shown on its own.
Blocking steps
Some steps block the ones after them. A notice period has to finish before service can be marked done, because serving before the cure period has run is the commonest reason a nonpayment case is dismissed. Seayora enforces that order rather than trusting the sequence to be followed.
Verified, and not verified
Verification is per STEP, not per state. A state can have a verified notice period and an unverified filing procedure, and the case says exactly that, step by step. “Verified” means one thing only: this step carries a citation to a published statute. It does not mean a lawyer has reviewed your case.
For a jurisdiction Seayora holds no verified rule for, the case carries a generic outline with no day counts anywhere on it, flagged for review. That is deliberate. Publishing “14 days” because most states say fourteen is precisely the failure this design exists to prevent.
Frequently asked questions
Why does a step on my eviction case have no due date?
Because Seayora holds no statute setting one. A step whose timing is an estimate — how long this normally takes rather than what the law requires — is shown without a date on purpose. A date on a screen reads as a fact, and an invented deadline in an eviction is far more damaging than an admitted gap.
What does “verified” mean on an eviction step?
That this specific step carries a citation to a published statute, and nothing more. It is not a legal review of your case, and verification is per step rather than per state — a jurisdiction can have a verified notice period and an unverified filing procedure, and the case will say so.
Does Seayora count weekends in an eviction deadline?
Only where the statute does. Where a period is counted in business days, Seayora counts business days and marks the step that way. It cannot see public holidays, which is why every computed date is shown together with where it came from rather than on its own — check it against the court before relying on it.
Why can I not mark a later step complete?
A blocking step earlier in the sequence has not finished. The usual case is the statutory notice period: serving a summons before the cure period has run is one of the commonest reasons a nonpayment case is dismissed, so the order is enforced rather than suggested.
Does Seayora cover my city as well as my state?
For some. Where a city rule is held, its steps are inserted into the state sequence at the right phase rather than replacing it — city requirements sit on top of state law, not beside it. The case names which rules are in play.
Related guides
- Eviction navigation — what Seayora does, and the four things it will never do
- Which states and cities Seayora covers — and why the rest publish nothing
- The eviction record — append-only, and why attached messages are frozen
Related features and guides
- Eviction navigation — what Seayora does, and the four things it will never do — Documentation. Seayora navigates an eviction: the steps your state and city require, in order, each with the statute behind it, the deadline it sets and a link to the real court. It does not file, serve, evict, or give legal advice — here is exactly where that line sits and why it is drawn there.
- Which states and cities Seayora covers — and why the rest publish nothing — Documentation. Seayora holds statute-cited eviction procedure for 22 jurisdictions and 6 cities. Everywhere else gets a generic outline with no day counts at all, flagged for review — because a plausible-looking deadline is worse than an admitted gap.
- The eviction record — append-only, and why attached messages are frozen — Documentation. Every eviction case keeps a record: each step as it moves, notes, costs, and the messages you attach from the conversation. Nothing is edited or deleted, and an attached message is stored as it read at the moment you attached it — because the live one can still be changed by whoever sent it.
- Online Rent Collection Software — Feature. Online rent collection: bank transfers free to the tenant, card payments, AutoPay on the lease’s due date, automatic late fees, roommate splitting and receipts issued when rent settles.
- AutoPay & Automated Rent Reminders — Feature. Tenants set up AutoPay once and rent drafts automatically on the due date written in the lease. Automated reminders go to anyone who is not on AutoPay.
- AI-Assisted Estimates & Quoting — Feature. AI-assisted estimating with materials prediction, 3D scan input, permit checks, and online quote approval — so quoting stops being unpaid after-hours work.