Last updated · May 15, 2026
Glossary
Plain-English definitions for the legal terms used across Predicate — on generated notices, in your case timeline, and throughout the app. Definitions are written to be clear rather than exhaustive, and each one is routed through our paralegal review pipeline. Entries still waiting on that review are flagged so you always know what has been verified and what has not.
Affidavit of service
An affidavit of service (also called a declaration or certificate of service) is a written statement, signed under oath and typically before a notary, in which the person who served a notice attests to the details of delivery: the date, time, location, method, and the identity of the recipient or the circumstances of substituted or posted service. Because it is sworn, it carries more evidentiary weight than an unsworn note and is what many courts expect to see attached to an eviction filing. The affidavit converts the practical act of service into admissible proof that the notice’s cure period validly began. Some jurisdictions require service of certain documents to be performed by a disinterested third party rather than the landlord personally.
Certified mail
Certified mail is a United States Postal Service product that gives the sender a dated mailing receipt and creates a delivery record that can be tracked. Landlords use it to serve tenant notices, or as a backup mailing alongside another service method, because it generates independent third-party evidence that a notice was sent. Many states’ landlord-tenant statutes recognize certified mail as a permitted service method — sometimes on its own, sometimes only when combined with regular first-class mail or with a return receipt confirming delivery. Whether certified mail alone satisfies service, and how the cure period is counted from the mailing date, depends on the specific jurisdiction.
Compliance score
The compliance score is a number from 0 to 100% that Predicate computes for each generated draft by running a set of mechanical checks: is the governing statute cited, is the cure period stated, is there a service notation block, is the tenant named, is the property identified, is the landlord’s information complete, and so on. It is meant as a fast "did I miss something obvious" signal. Crucially, a high score reflects only that the draft contains the structural elements a notice of that type typically requires — it is not a substantive legal review and does not certify that the notice is legally sound or will hold up in court. Every draft should still be reviewed by a licensed attorney before service.
Cure or Quit notice
A Cure or Quit notice addresses a non-rent breach of the lease: unauthorized pets or occupants, smoking in a non-smoking unit, subletting without permission, persistent noise complaints, or any other material violation of a written lease term. It identifies the specific violation and gives the tenant a cure period to fix it or vacate. Because these cases turn on proving the violation actually happened, landlords are expected to document it well — dated photos, written warnings, witness statements. If the violation is something that cannot be undone, such as serious property damage or criminal activity, some states instead allow an unconditional-quit notice with no cure option; those situations usually warrant attorney advice.
Cure period
A cure period is the legally-defined stretch of time, counted from the date a notice is properly served, during which a tenant can "cure" the problem a notice describes and stop an eviction before it starts. For a nonpayment notice that usually means paying the full balance owed; for a lease-violation notice it means correcting the behavior. The length is set by each state’s landlord-tenant statute and ranges from as little as 3 days to 14 days or more, sometimes differing by notice type within the same state. Serving a notice with the wrong cure period — for example a 3-day notice in a state that requires 5 — is one of the most common reasons an eviction case is dismissed for a procedural defect. If the tenant cures within the window, the notice is satisfied and the tenancy continues as before.
Cure period running
"Cure period running" is the case-tracker status for the stretch between a notice being served and its cure deadline passing. During this window the tenant can still resolve the matter — by paying the balance or correcting the lease violation — and stop the case from advancing. No eviction can be filed while the cure period is legitimately running. Predicate tracks the cure deadline so the status carries an overdue indicator once the date passes without resolution. From here a case typically moves to "cured" if the tenant complies, or to "escalated" if the deadline expires and the landlord proceeds toward a filing.
Cured
"Cured" is the case-tracker status indicating that a tenant took the corrective action a notice demanded — paying the full amount owed or fixing the lease violation — before the cure period expired. When a case is cured, the notice has done its job: it is satisfied, the tenancy continues, and there is no basis to file an eviction on that notice. Recording the cure on the case timeline creates a clear history if the same tenant has a later issue. A cured case is usually then moved to "resolved" as its final state.
Demand amount
The demand amount is the exact sum of money a tenant is being asked to pay to satisfy a notice — the overdue rent in a Pay or Quit notice, or the total of back rent, fees, and damages in a demand letter. Courts expect the figure to be concrete and accurate: a notice that says a tenant owes rent without stating how much typically cannot support an eviction or a money judgment. Overstating the amount can be just as damaging, because a tenant told to pay more than they actually owe may have a valid defense. The demand amount should reconcile with the ledger or accounting behind it, which is why Predicate’s compliance checks flag a draft that is missing a dollar figure.
Demand letter
A demand letter for damages is the conventional step a landlord takes before filing a small-claims or civil suit against a former tenant. It is used after move-out, when unpaid rent, late fees, cleaning, or repair costs exceed the security deposit. The letter states the amount owed, explains the basis for it, and gives the former tenant a window — commonly 10 to 30 days — to pay before a lawsuit is filed. Some courts effectively expect a demand letter as standard practice before a collection filing. A demand letter is not appropriate while the tenant is still in possession (use Pay or Quit or Cure or Quit instead), nor when the deposit fully covers the amount, which is a separate deposit-accounting matter.
Escalated
"Escalated" is the case-tracker status for a matter where the tenant did not cure within the deadline and the landlord is proceeding toward a court filing — an unlawful detainer or the local equivalent. It marks the transition out of the notice phase and into litigation, and in Predicate’s case lifecycle it is a near-final state: once a case is escalated, the only further status change allowed is "resolved." Escalation is the point at which most landlords involve an attorney, since court procedure and contested hearings are well beyond what a drafting tool covers.
Free quota
The free quota is Predicate’s no-cost trial allowance: a new account can generate a limited number of notices — enough to try the product end to end — without entering payment details. The quota counts every draft ever generated on the account, so it cannot be reset by deleting drafts. When the free quota is exhausted, existing drafts stay fully readable but new generation is blocked behind the pricing page until the user picks a plan. It is distinct from a lapsed subscription, which describes an account that had a paid plan and then lost it.
Lapsed
A "lapsed" subscription is one that is no longer active — because it was cancelled, because a renewal payment failed, or because a billing period ended without continuation. When an account lapses, Predicate keeps the user’s existing drafts and case history readable so nothing is lost, but new notice generation is paused until the subscription is restored from the billing page. Lapsed is distinct from never having subscribed: it specifically describes an account that previously had access. Restoring a plan re-enables drafting immediately.
Late Rent notice
A Late Rent notice is an informal demand a landlord sends when rent is past due but they are not yet ready to begin the eviction process. Unlike a Pay or Quit notice, it does not start a statutory cure period and nothing about it advances an eviction timeline — it is purely a documented reminder, often paired with an offer to discuss a payment arrangement. Landlords who want to preserve the tenancy where possible use it as a first, low-conflict step. If a Late Rent notice goes unanswered, the usual next step is a formal Pay or Quit notice, and the documented late notice helps show a court the landlord tried to resolve things before resorting to eviction.
Notice served
In Predicate’s case tracker, "Notice served" is the status that records that a notice has been properly delivered to the tenant through a recognized service method. It is a pivotal milestone: in most situations the cure period — and therefore the whole eviction timeline — begins counting from the date of valid service, not from the date the notice was written or signed. Marking a case as notice served stamps the service date on the case timeline so later deadlines can be measured from it. The next status in the lifecycle is typically the cure period running, after which the case either resolves through cure or escalates.
Paralegal-verified
"Paralegal-verified" is Predicate’s trust signal indicating that the jurisdiction-specific content used to build a notice — the governing statute citation, the cure period, the approved service methods, and any required disclosures — has been reviewed by a paralegal against authoritative sources such as state legislature sites and court self-help materials. It is the editorial step that separates Predicate’s drafts from raw AI output. Verification is recorded per state and notice type, with the reviewer and date surfaced on the draft. Content that has not yet been through that review is labeled "paralegal review pending" rather than presented as verified — the product’s policy is to show the real status, not imply a review that has not happened. Predicate also re-checks verified content on a regular cadence so citations stay current as laws change.
Pay or Quit notice
A Pay or Quit notice (sometimes "Notice to Pay Rent or Quit") is the formal demand a landlord serves when a tenant has fallen behind on rent. It states the exact amount owed and gives the tenant a statutory cure period to either pay in full or vacate the property. In nearly every state this notice is the required first step — the "predicate" — before a landlord can file an eviction case for nonpayment; a court will expect to see a properly served Pay or Quit notice in the file. If the tenant pays within the window the matter is resolved; if they neither pay nor leave, the landlord can typically proceed to file an unlawful detainer action.
Proof of service
Proof of service is the documentation a landlord keeps to demonstrate that a notice was delivered in a legally valid way. It records the date of service, the method used (personal delivery, substituted service, posting and mailing, certified mail), the address, and the identity of the person who carried it out. When an eviction reaches court, the judge looks to the proof of service to confirm the notice’s cure period actually started running. A proof of service can take the form of a simple signed statement or, when sworn before a notary, a formal affidavit of service. Because service defects are a leading reason cases are dismissed, careful proof of service is as important as the notice itself.
Required disclosures
Required disclosures are the pieces of information a jurisdiction’s law obligates a landlord to provide — sometimes within the notice itself, sometimes as a separate accompanying document. Examples include statements of tenant rights, where and how to pay, the consequences of not curing, lead-paint disclosures, or state-specific tenant-rights summaries. Which disclosures apply depends entirely on the state and the notice type, and they change as legislatures amend the law. Leaving out a disclosure the statute mandates can render a notice defective even when every other element is correct, giving a tenant grounds to challenge it. Predicate’s drafts incorporate the disclosures identified for each jurisdiction and notice type during research.
Resolved
"Resolved" is the final status in Predicate’s case lifecycle, marking a matter as fully concluded however it ended — the tenant cured and the tenancy continued, the tenant paid or moved out, or the case ran its course through the courts. It is a terminal state: the case tracker’s state-transition rules do not allow a resolved case to be moved back into an active status, which keeps the case history honest. Marking a case resolved stamps a resolution date on the timeline. If a previously resolved tenant has a new issue later, that is handled as a new case rather than by reopening the old one.
Return receipt
A return receipt is an optional United States Postal Service add-on, available with certified mail, that returns to the sender a record — historically a green card, now often electronic — showing the signature of whoever accepted the item and the date of delivery. For landlords serving notices by mail, the return receipt is valuable evidence: it moves the record from "a notice was sent" to "a notice was received," which is exactly what a court wants when assessing whether service was effective. Some state statutes specifically call for certified mail with return receipt requested when notice is served by mail. Note that a tenant who refuses to sign can complicate the receipt, which is one reason landlords often pair mailed service with another permitted method.
Service of process
Service of process is the formal delivery of a legal document — here, a landlord-tenant notice — to its recipient using a method the governing statute permits. Common methods include personal hand delivery, leaving the document with a suitable adult at the residence and mailing a copy ("substituted service"), or posting it on the door and mailing a copy. Each state specifies which methods are valid for which documents, and getting this wrong is one of the most frequent causes of an eviction case being dismissed. The cure-period clock typically does not start until service is properly completed. After service, the landlord usually records how and when it happened in a proof of service.
Statute citation
A statute citation is the precise pointer to the provision of a state’s landlord-tenant code that governs a particular notice — typically expressed as a code name, title or chapter, and section number (for example, "Tex. Prop. Code § 24.005"). Predicate includes the governing citation on each draft so the notice is visibly grounded in the law a court will apply, and so a reviewer can audit it against the source. Statutes are amended over time, so a citation is only as good as how recently it was verified; that is why Predicate re-checks citations on a regular cadence and surfaces a verification date. A notice that cites the wrong section, or an outdated one, undercuts its own credibility.
Unlawful detainer
An unlawful detainer is the name many states give to the summary court proceeding a landlord uses to evict a tenant and regain possession of a rental property. It is filed after a predicate notice — such as a Pay or Quit or Cure or Quit — has been properly served and its cure period has expired without the tenant paying, curing, or leaving. Unlawful detainer cases are designed to move faster than ordinary civil suits, and courts scrutinize the underlying notice closely: a defective or improperly served notice is a common reason the case is dismissed and the landlord has to start over. Depending on the state the same action may be called a forcible detainer, summary ejectment, or simply an eviction.
Virginia Tenant Rights & Responsibilities disclosureVA-specific
Virginia’s Residential Landlord and Tenant Act requires landlords to provide tenants with the Statement of Tenant Rights and Responsibilities — a standardized disclosure form developed for the Commonwealth that summarizes key obligations of both parties. The requirement is tied to the start of the tenancy and to enforcement steps, and in practice a missing or undelivered Statement is a recurring problem that surfaces when a Virginia unlawful detainer case reaches a hearing — judges and tenants alike raise it as a defect. Landlords pursuing a notice or eviction in Virginia should confirm the Statement was provided and keep proof of delivery. (Review note: the exact statutory section, the controlling form version, and the precise timing and proof requirements should be confirmed by a paralegal — this entry is an agent-written draft.)
These definitions are educational and are not legal advice. Predicate is not a law firm. For how a term applies to your situation, consult a licensed attorney in your jurisdiction.
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