First Ever Tenant Becomes "Successful" Wage Garnishment

[Mark Graffagnino]

I recently completed the process of going from removal of a tenant to receipt of funds from a wage garnishment. I thought I would run through the process for anyone about to go through it for the first time or thinking about it. This is going to be a rather long post as I’ll try to include the back story to answer as many of the anticipated questions as possible. I am in Atlanta, (Fulton County) Georgia and this was my first rental property and first ever tenant. I bought the house with a partner and I served as the property manager.

First some background:

House Purchased: 10/31/2012

Tenant Move In: 5/1/2013

Tenant Removed: 6/7/2014

Garnishment Funds Received: 9/11/2015

So the time frame from removal to receipt of funds took over 16 months, and the tenant did not contest any of the process. That’s just how long the system takes.

MY FIRST INCOME PROPERTY AND FIRST TENANT

When I was getting started I had a friend helping me along the way and she had success with several properties in the Section 8 program with the Atlanta Housing Authority (AHA). The house was in what I’d consider a B- neighborhood (working class but homes and yards kept up well, not many renters) in an overall geographic area that I’d call a C-. Because of that, and the fact that the AHA is on the higher end of the rent scale, I decided to try the Section 8 program with this house. I went through all the paperwork and red tape associated with Section 8 and found my first tenant.

This woman was not the typical Section 8 tenant that my friend had placed in her homes. She drove a nicer car than me and when she filled out my rental application I verified that she made $20 per hour as a neo-natal nurse in one of the major hospitals in Atlanta. I couldn’t figure out why this woman was on Section 8. Then when the Housing Assistance Payment contract came in the mail I saw that AHA would only be paying $300 of the total rent amount of $985. I did a background check and her prior landlord confirmed that she paid on time and had been in his house for 7 years.

All started out fine, she made her payments on time (always on the 5th) and AHA wired their funds in like clockwork. Then in July of 2013 I got a notice from AHA of a proposed termination of the payment assistance, they held a hearing in October, and I got another notice that the final AHA payment would be made on December 1, 2013. AHA finally figured out that she made too much money to be on Section 8.

She wanted to stay in the house and promised that the additional $300 would not be a problem for her. So we signed a new lease in January 2014. That was when the trouble started. February was paid in two installments, including the late fee. I filed a Dispossessory Notice but then dismissed it when the second installment was paid. March was paid late, including the late fee. April was not paid at all. I had filed another Dispo Notice in March after that rent was not paid by the 6th and kept it in force when the April rent was not paid.

THE BIG MISTAKE

We had a court date on April 30, 2014 and this was where I made the biggest mistake. This was my first tenant related court hearing and I naively thought it would be a fairly quick undertaking. It was a 9 AM hearing so I cleared my morning calendar but had a meeting set up in the afternoon. I showed up for the 9 AM hearing to find that my case was about #40 on the docket. The place was packed. After calling all the cases the first thing the judge says is that all parties must have tried to work out an agreement before their case is called for hearing and if you have not already tried then go out into the hallway right now and try to work something out. So we go out to the hallway and the excuses and sob story starts. She brought so many tears that Meryl Streep would have been impressed. She claimed that her adult son had just gotten a job and he would be helping to pay the rent. Between not wanting to spend the whole day in court and stupidly hoping that this was her “wake up call” and she would actually start paying again, I caved and we wrote out a payment plan, based on when she got her paychecks and both signed it. To no one’s surprise she never made the first payment of our new payment plan.

So in May I filed another Dispo Notice, told her I would not be fooled again, and she agreed to move out on June 7th. The house was not in bad shape; some minor sheetrock touch up, one door was off the hinges and had to be replaced, but she left a bunch of junk (“I’ll have it removed by Saturday”) that I had to take to the dump. Surprisingly she gave me her real forwarding address, otherwise it would have been tough to track her down.

THE GARNISHMENT PROCESS

I enlisted help from a fraternity brother who is a real estate attorney and he first informed me that since she moved to another county (Cobb) I had to start over with a new lawsuit. On to a new Magistrate Court…

June 2014 filed the suit

August 2014 she was served

Nov 2014 got a Notice of the 12/8/14 court date

Dec 2014 Went to court, she did not show, got a Default Judgement

So I thought finally, it’s over. I just need to file a garnishment and her employer will cut me a check. Not so fast said my attorney. I had to file another 5 forms back in Fulton County Magistrate Court, because that is where her employer was located. Her employer was served in January 2015 and I received their first answer in February. They would start garnishment, but could only garnish a percentage from her check each month and that money would get paid into the court. I got an update each month from her employer with how much had been garnished. The final garnishment was made in June 2015. I made application with the court to receive the money and finally got the check on September 11, 2015.

I guess I consider this a “successful” garnishment, because I ultimately recovered the $3,000 that was owed to me. But I have not calculated (and don’t want to know) how many hours of my time the process took. But regardless, it was the principle of the matter…I was not going to let her get away with it. I just wish I could have seen the look on her face when the hospital HR department called her in to tell her that her paychecks were going to be garnished. I’m sure she thought she had scammed me for three grand.