Delaware Justice of the Peace Court, How To File and Defend a Summary Possession Action

If you are a corporation, partnership or other “artificial entity”, a current form 50 is also required to be filed with the complaint form.

If you need to obtain a form 50 or renew the form 50, you should mail the completed form 50 with a check or money order for the required fee to the Office of the Chief Magistrate at the address listed on the form.

You will receive a time stamped copy back in the mail that you will need in order to submit it with your complaint.

The information which is required to be contained in/attached to the Complaint is described below. Once the Court receives your paperwork, it will serve the papers on the other party unless you wish to hire a special process server to serve the papers (the filing fee includes service by the Court.)

Remember, that if the action is for money only, such as a claim for rent or return of a security deposit, a debt action, rather than a summary possession action, must be filed. However, if seeking both money and possession, a summary possession action should be filed.

class="anchors"

What information must the complaint contain?

All Complaints:

The complaint form (JP Civ. Form No. 1) is used for all civil complaints in the Justice of the Peace Court and, therefore, does not specify what must be contained in a summary possession action. However, the Landlord-Tenant Code (25 Del.C. § 5707) requires that certain specific information be included in a summary possession complaint. Therefore, in all complaints, the following should be included in the section of the complaint entitled "Concise Statement of the Facts."

The interests of the plaintiff and the defendant and their relationship to each other with regard to the rental unit (for example, landlord and tenant);