Need to change Florida debtor, and collections laws.

[Jeff B.]

To any Florida landlords, I am sure you know the over complex and ridiculous procedures you must follow to evict, claim a judgment, claim a writ of garnishment, and have laws that allow someone who owes you money to have virtual immunity from collections using various different methods.

I can't do it alone and I'm sure you didn't get into the Real Estate or business of renting to have someone legally steal from you with impunity. This will probably be a long and messy process but if you don't take any action or fight for fairness in the legal system you will be allowing any tenant who desires to take advantage of the flawed landlord tenant legal system in Florida when they desire.

To hit on the main points of which need immediate attention are.

Florida Statute

"222.11?Exemption of wages from garnishment

(c)?“Head of family” includes any natural person who is providing more than one-half of the support for a child or other dependent. (2)(a)?All of the disposable earnings of a head of family whose disposable earnings are less than or equal to $750 a week are exempt from attachment or garnishment."

This Statute is saying that if your tenant makes $39,000 a year and pays for 1/2 of the support for a child or dependent they can't have their wages garnished. In addition you need to know the process for collections and that when you attempt to file a Writ of Garnishment you are required to pay in Palm Beach County, a deposit for the debtors legal fees that may be collected by debtor if they are legally challenged without legal right. Then you must mail to the debtors last known address the Writ of Garnishment motion, if returned undelivered you can mail to the debtors place of employment the Writ.
(The only problem occurs when your tenant moves with no forwarding address and/or changes their job). Yes you can legally add on to the collection fees your expenses for finding, serving, and collecting the judgment.

I would like to see a State Database created that each employer will need to access or will notify the employer that they have an employee with a judgment, and Writ of Garnishment and what amount needs to be deducted and where payment needs to be mailed. This would stop landlords from writing off losses on the rental property due to the overly complex, time consuming, and unjust process that must be followed just to collect any amount of payment.

I need every landlord in Florida who is willing to help to press back on your local and state legislators to make changes to the "Writ of Garnishment" process and exemption collection amounts. Then pressure the State to develop a Database that will allow businesses and people to be able to legally collect an unpaid debt or judgment, even if there is a small fee required from the debt collector for expenses involved with running the database. It's funny if someone steals a similar amount that a debtor owes the landlord the debtor can be arrested and jailed and have to go through the legal system for their misdeed but when it involves a landlord they can virtually laugh at you with impunity knowing there is little you can do.

Here are some useful links for Florida House of Representatives

http://www.myfloridahouse.gov/sections/representatives/representatives.aspx

Florida Senators

http://www.flsenate.gov/Senators/

There is a link from the Florida Bar for Rules for Court Procedures.

Google "Florida Rules of Court Procedure" and it's the top link.

I can't do this alone, if you don't do anything, nothing will change for landlords in Florida.