Property trashed, should I pursue criminal charges?

Question

So finally after evicting the tenant I have spent almost $8000 refurbishing the place to get it ready to rent out again. For e.g. all the doors were ripped out and the walls were filled with pen marks. I am going to pursue this tenant through the civil courts for whatever that's worth.

I also got stiffed for the last 2 months of rent, which was not even covered by the security deposit.

I did not even know this was an option but how feasible is it to pursue criminal charges against this tenant now that everything is almost repaired and is it even worth it? I have plenty of photos and a video documenting the damage.

Scott Meredith · Answer

@Rizwan Halim I posted a blog post about things similar to this a few months ago. Here is a link https://www.biggerpockets.com/blogs/3958-the-investor-cop

Chris Da · Answer

if it is really trashed, call your insurance agent and verify if you have a vandalism rider on your policy. If you do, have the adjuster come out. They may require you to file charges. So do it, they trashed your house. If you have to take them to civil court, fine, but get your money one way or another. You pay for insurance for a reason. Good luck collection a judgement with a dead beat tenant. Call a lawyer if you want, but your insurance agent isn't gonna charge you big bucks to send an adjuster out...it's free.

Joel Owens · Answer

"which was not even covered by the security deposit." How much was the security deposit?? Do you check multiple landlords back and income levels before placing this tenant in your property?? Any tenant that is questionable if you are going to give them a chance it has to come at a very steep price to the tenant first, last month and some non-refundable money along with a larger security deposit. Most of them can't do this and only have enough money saved up from stiffing the previous landlord or friends where they were staying. Also I have seen some other investors say with pro-tenant states that they are not allowed to collect above a certain security deposit with the lease. If this is the case for your property and area then you simply do not rent to those marginal tenants FOR ANY REASON because you cannot price in the risk. You would do better to drop rent 50 a month and get flooded with apps from quality tenants that pay and do not do damage. 50 dollars less in rent yearly is 600 lost versus 8,000 in damage and 2 months rent lost rent from your tenant. On the judgments understand that one of a few outcomes will happen. When you get the judgment you can have a collection company pursue for money but they only have credit reporting to go after which most with a judgment do not care about. Next level is an attorney but they just send letters out and maybe a phone call if they have a number. Most judgment debtors will tell them to go fly a kite. The third option is a professional judgment recovery company. They will either usually buy the judgment outright for about 10 to 15 cents on the dollar or do an agreement for 50/50 split of whatever is collected and the judgment company will file forms and process for garnishment or bank levy etc. What the judgment company will ask you for Is info on the debtor. The judgment company wants to know if they are judgment proof. If the debtor is not collectable under any circumstances now or in the future then you have a worthless judgment nobody will want to buy or help you collect on. You can try for a bank levy but if the funds are protected like social security etc. then you will not succeed with a levy. The wage garnishment they have to be working at a collectible job. If they get paid cash under the table or they are self-employed you are out of luck. Even if employed with a collectible check there are still federal laws on being to able to garnish wages. If the wages equal a certain amount or under then you cannot collect any funds with a garnishment. Even if they make enough to be garnished they cap the amount you can take at any one time and if multiple collectors have garnishments already on that debtor then the amounts collected is split I believe among 25% of the total check. Use this link to look at it because it's been awhile and things are constantly changing. The debtor with a judgment could file chapter 7 and wipe it all out. The judgment game is a percentages play just like defaulted mortgage notes. Some will eventually pay off as life circumstances change, some will never pay anything, some will pay some over time usually years. Personally with a judgment if a company will buy it off right away and be done with it that is cleanest. Here is the fed link on wage garnishment: Federal Wage Garnishment Laws

Chris Da · Answer

I had this happen last year. I didn't bother going after the tenant because you can't take blood from a stone. What I did do was turn it into my insurance company and had it classified as"vandalism". he adjuster came out and to my pleasant surprise gave me a check for 12k. Being I do all my own work, I completely renovated the house which now looks better than it has ever looked. Updated a lot of things and ended up paying myself 2k a week for 2 weeks while I repaired the house. Worked out great.

Jeff Bridges · Answer

A couple of things to note for small claims court from my experience (civil claim): -Check your state/county small claims court website to see what the maximum claim you can make in small claims. for most, the most you can sue for is 5k, others more. Small claims is the least expensive and you can represent yourself no problem. It might take a couple of visits to obtain a judgment and you'll need to take off these days from work. it requires a lot of time. -You will want a lot of photo/ video evidence of damage and repair bills to prove the damage and the cost of the damage. If you don't have these, the judge wont likely rule in your favor. You'll also need to have a valid rental license in some counties in order to be able to present your case or else they will refuse to hear it. Bring copy of lease and as much documentation with you as possible in case they ask to see something. -you need current address of the tenant in order to serve process. You can have process server perform a skip trace and track them down and serve for you for additional fee ($30 for me, well worth it), but you can't go anywhere with your case unless you have proof of service. They might not have to show up to court for you to present your case and win, but you need valid proof of serving court summons. def use a professional process server and have their contact info before you file the paperwork at the court house. -A judgement doesn't guarantee they will pay you (most likely they wont). You have to file additional paperwork to garnish wages etc and if they don't have a job, you get nothing. Hiring an attorney to do this for you is also possible, but its plausible that their fees will exceed the amount you hope to get in return, which is already low odds... So while it might feel good to obtain judgement, it takes perserverance and isn't as satisfying as we all hope it to be.

Colleen F. · Answer

My sister had a tenant like this. It was a case of a good tenant gone bad. Married , gambling, lost job, started passing bad checks. (kite-ing ). The police encouraged her to file a complaint as they were pursuing the tenant for fraud and the rent checks were the only ones large enough to elevate his case in the legal system. He was doing it all over town and her bad rent checks pushed it to another level. It is probably worth it to look into the possibilities. She was in Flemington, I don't know if the Edison cops would be as interested, it is a much bigger town.

Bill S. · Answer

@Scott Meredith thanks for the helpful post. Having it all written up I never would have thought of. So @Rizwan Halim sure the insurance companies don't cover tenant damage but it can be criminal if it was intentional. Typically the only way to prove that it is criminal is if the damage looks systematic ie hammer holes every two feet in a pattern. Once it's criminal, vandalism, criminal mischief, destruction of property, or what ever then insurance kicks in. If they are just knuckleheads and beat up your property over the course of life via domestic violence or what ever then that's on you. If they get vengeful and spiteful and you can prove it then it's criminal. I know people who have been successful in getting insurance to cover repairs under this scenario. For them it was about $30K that the insurance paid.

Mike H. · Answer

Still, I would pursue it as a civil claim and get that judgment. But I would only do it in small claims court. It might be worth something later on down the road. But more importantly, you'll have the satisfaction of knowing you stuck him with something. I've kind of reached the point where its more the principle than anything else. I think in the first few years of doing this, the couple hundred bucks down the drain wasn't worth it. But now that I have a larger amount of rental income coming in, I fully intend to stick it to any tenant that I have to evict and/or does damage to my property. I know I probably won't see that money again. But I'll also know its going to be awfully tough for that moron to rent another place with an eviction on their record AND a judgment due to damages. Also know that once you get that judgement on their credit report, they'll have zero chance of ever buying a house until its paid off.

Rizwan Halim · Answer

Thanks guys for the responses. I did call the insurance company, both mine and his the first thing and they said they did not cover tenant damages.

Bill S. · Answer

You don't pursue criminal charges, the police do. You can call the police and report a crime. They may or may not come and look at it. Probably won't if you tell them you have already fixed it up. Really depends on where the property is. If they don't come, they will likely offer that you can go down to the station and file a report. That's the last you will hear of it unless you are in a small community with very low crime and the police know you and are willing to pursue because they know you. Now where the police report comes in is you need that to collect the damages from your insurance company. They are the ones that would be the best source of money to make you whole. I would say you should have pursued that route first thing before you started repairs. Since you have already done the work, I doubt they will do anything for you. The only remaining route is civil court as @Marc Ramsay covered.