Form 101A: Rent Deposit, Filing, and the 30-Day Stay

Form 101A, the Initial Statement About an Eviction Judgment Against You, is a one-page bankruptcy form that temporarily blocks a landlord from enforcing an eviction judgment entered before you filed. Filing it with your petition, together with a deposit of the rent that will come due in the next 30 days, pauses the eviction for 30 days so you can pay off the full default and keep your home.

When Form 101A Applies

The automatic stay in bankruptcy normally freezes collection activity, but federal law makes an exception for residential eviction judgments entered before the petition date. Without Form 101A, a landlord who already won possession in state court can proceed with the lockout even after you file.¹ The form delays that exception by 30 days.²

Three things must be true for the form to help you:

You rent the property as your residence. Commercial space and investment units do not qualify.
A court entered a judgment for possession against you before you filed bankruptcy. If the eviction case is still pending, this form does not apply.³
Your state’s law gives you a right to stay in the residence by paying everything you owe, even after the judgment was entered. Not every state recognizes this right, so check your local landlord-tenant law before filing.²

An adult dependent who lives with you can make the deposit and cure the default on your behalf, which matters when a household member has income you do not.²

The Rent Deposit

The deposit is the part that trips most tenants. At the moment you file your petition, you must deposit with the bankruptcy clerk the rent that will come due during the 30 days following the filing date.³ Not later that week. The same day.

How much you deposit depends on your lease and your filing date. If a full month’s rent will come due inside the 30-day window, deposit the full amount. If only part of a rental period falls inside the window, a prorated figure may be correct. Read your lease and run the math before filing day.

Many bankruptcy courts will only accept the deposit as a money order or certified check made payable to the United States Bankruptcy Court. Personal checks and cash are often refused. Confirm your local court’s payment rules in advance, because showing up with the wrong instrument means the deposit cannot be made and the 30-day protection never activates.

Filing and Serving the Form

Form 101A has to be filed at the same time as the bankruptcy petition itself, not before and not after.³ You can download the current version from the U.S. Courts website.⁴ Pro se filers typically bring the paperwork and the deposit to the clerk’s office in person; attorneys file through the court’s electronic system.

The form carries two certifications you must sign under penalty of perjury: that your state’s law gives you the right to cure the default and keep the residence, and that you have made the required rent deposit with the clerk.³

Filing is only half the job. You also have to serve a copy on your landlord, because the statute requires both filing and service to activate the 30-day stay.² Service is what stops a scheduled lockout from going forward. First-class mail to the landlord’s address is the common method; some tenants use a process server for proof of delivery. Keep documentation either way. If the landlord later claims they never got notice, that proof is your only defense.

What the 30 Days Buys You

When the form is properly filed and served, the eviction judgment cannot be enforced for 30 days after your petition date.² Your landlord cannot have you locked out or your belongings removed during that window.

The 30 days is a bridge, not a cure. To keep the eviction stay in place past that point, you have to do two things before the window closes:

Pay your landlord the full amount stated in the eviction judgment. The entire back-rent default, not a partial payment and not a payment plan.
File Official Form 101B, Statement About Payment of an Eviction Judgment Against You, with the court and serve a copy on your landlord.¹

Form 101B is a sworn certification that you have cured the entire monetary default.⁵ Local courts may require proof of payment, such as receipts, cleared checks, or a written acknowledgment from the landlord, so check your court’s local rules. Once Form 101B is on file and the default has been cured, the eviction exception no longer applies and the landlord cannot enforce the judgment.¹

If You Miss the Deadline or Skip the Form

If 30 days run out and you have not paid the full default and filed Form 101B, the stay expires on its own. No court order is required. The landlord resumes the eviction and enforces the original judgment.²

A different scenario produces an even faster result. If your petition discloses an eviction judgment but you never file Form 101A at all, the eviction exception applies immediately, and the clerk serves both you and your landlord with a certified copy of the docket showing no certification was filed.⁶ Once the protection lapses, there is no way to put it back in place retroactively.

If the Landlord Objects

Filing Form 101A does not guarantee a quiet 30 days. Your landlord can file an objection arguing that your state does not actually give you a right to cure, or that the deposit you made was insufficient.¹

Once the objection is filed and served, the court must hold a hearing within 10 days to decide whether your certification was truthful.¹ If the court sides with the landlord, the eviction exception applies right away; the landlord does not have to file a separate motion for stay relief. Come to the hearing with the state law you relied on and proof of your deposit, because 10 days is not much time to assemble a defense.

When Form 101A Cannot Help

Two situations put the 30-day protection out of reach entirely.

Endangerment or illegal drug use on the premises. If the eviction is based on property endangerment or illegal use of controlled substances at the rental, Form 101A does not apply. A separate exception to the automatic stay controls. The landlord files a sworn certification that an eviction action on those grounds is pending or that such conduct occurred in the 30 days before the certification. The exception takes effect 15 days after that certification is filed and served. You can object and get a hearing within 10 days, but unless you show the situation did not exist or has been corrected, the stay dissolves and the eviction proceeds.⁷

Recent dismissed bankruptcies. If one prior bankruptcy case of yours was dismissed in the last 12 months, the automatic stay in the new case expires after 30 days unless you persuade the court the new filing is in good faith. That is the same 30-day window Form 101A is meant to create, so the protections run out together. If two or more prior cases were dismissed within the past year, no stay takes effect at all when you file; you have to ask the court to impose one, and the law presumes bad faith, which you can only overcome with clear and convincing evidence of changed circumstances.⁶ Filing Form 101A in either situation offers little real protection if the underlying stay never kicks in or expires on the same clock.

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 362 – Automatic Stay
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 362 – Automatic Stay
3
United States Courts. Official Form 101A – Initial Statement About an Eviction Judgment Against You
4
United States Courts. Initial Statement About an Eviction Judgment Against You
5
United States Courts. Official Form 101B – Statement About Payment of an Eviction Judgment Against You
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 US Code 362 – Automatic Stay
7
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 362 – Automatic Stay