Apparently this tenant responded to the court to delay the eviciton process to buy more time. The court has to stop the eviction process once the defendant responds for whatever reason. In this case, your scheduled lockout process with Sheriff must be cancelled.
This is one of the worst scenario that we as landlord want to avoid. Read my posting earlier:
http://bbs.wenxuecity.com/tzlc/508470.html
Since you are already in this situation, you need to know what RE law says. To my knowledge and CA RE Laws, the tenants must notify the landlord for any inhabitable repair requests. If the landlord failed to respond in timely manner, the tenant can hold up to one month rent within 12 month period of time. This money must be used for repairs.
In this case, I don't see evidence to cover either base mentioned above. Therefore there is no base for the tenant to argue at the court.
The tenant just wants to buy more time. I doubt that he will even show up at the court. You can get the default judgment easily. However you must show up at the court unfortunately and reschedule the lockout with Sherrif. This delay with give the tenants at least another 20 days for free rent.
