Why does the law make it so hard to collect back rent,collect for damages, evict?
Friday, January 29th, 2010 at
5:51 pm
I have rented to two different families now and both of them have left me holding the bag. With outstanding rent, water bills and damages.The last tenant simply went underground or something. She has lost her state job, no one has seen or heard from her. I have been told by several homeowners that i would be wasting my time, Does anyone know of a way to make the courts make the tenants pay their debts?
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Tagged with: Debts • Rent • Water Bills
Filed under: flat rent back
It is not that the law makes it so hard, it is that you should be doing a better job of screening your tenants that you rent to. It sounds like you took the first warm body that came through with that month’s rent. Do you have them fill out a rental application? Do you check to see that they are who they are?
Do you have a security deposit? Do you make them pay the last month in advance?
Have you thought of making them pay for the water?
You can go to small claims court and win the case. Then if you can find them, which you may not be able to do, you can go about making them pay. But the reality is that your expectation should not be that you will recover all of your lost money.
On the other hand, sometimes there is justice in putting a judgement on them that the next landlord might actually check on.
Unfortunately that is one of the fall backs of being a Landlord. The only way to collect is to sue them, and to sue them you need an address. You can hire a P.I to see if they can find them, but then you are out even more money. We ( all landlords ) have gone through this before and I’m sure we will all go through it again. I now will hit someone with a 3 day notice on the 2nd of the month, rent is due on the 1st and there is no grace period I no longer give a benefit of the doubt. I don’t like being this way, but it is my business. Also, is there a reason you pay the water bill? I know some places (more than one unit) only has 1 meter and if that’s the case I understand, but I have my tenants pay all utilities. Chalk it up to experience….Good Luck with your next tenant. KG
Our office gets landlords all the time who complain endlessly about “the system”, but 9 times out of 10 they have no one to blame but themselves. They don’t file for non-payment evictions fast enough, they send defective notices which are not enforceable, they don’t know the law and are too cheap to pay someone who does, they use those stupid free lease forms and screw themselves royally, they think they have rights they don’t actually have, you name it. It’s frustrating to have to deal with people who are in denial over the way things actually are.
The next time a tenant who doesn’t have a good history of being reliable with you is late with the rent, follow the process for eviction immediately. You can always dismiss the case if they pay you. Make sure you have the maximum deposit allowed by law in your area to cover yourself.