Eviction & court ordered default judgment

[Larry Ott]

About a year ago I had to do an eviction on one of my properties here in Southern Indiana, the judge issued a default judgement against this couple and in my favor of $5,400. At the time I was just happy to get these deadbeats out of my property. Since some time has past and things have settled out a bit, I've been thinking maybe it's time to pursue this and see if I can collect all or part of this. I'm sure they still live in the area, but I'm not sure where. Anybody had any success in this situation? How did you go about it? Did you use a collection agency?

[Charlie MacPherson]

@Larry Ott  I had to chase a tenant for real estate commission owed.  I ended up going to small claims court where after the bum failed to show for 3 hearings, I was awarded a default judgement.  Mind you, this was in Massachusetts so your state could be different.

The Magistrate asked whether I wanted an "execution" or a "capias" or both. 

The execution meant that I could hire a constable of sheriff to seize assets like a bank account, car, etc and sell them to satisfy the amount owed.

The capias was a lot more interesting.  It's a civil arrest warrant.  I could hire a constable or sheriff to arrest the bum or his wife (both were debtors) and have them brought to court to face a judge. 

My strategy was to tel the bum that I would have the sheriff arrest his wife at work.  That threat worked.  The bum coughed up the amount owed very quickly.

BTW - in Massachusetts, unpaid judgments are subject to 12% interest per year. Not a bad ROI!