Small Claims Court- New Jersey Essex Rental (Buy and Hold)

[Jodi-Ann Bennett]

Hello All,

So I have a tenant that recently moved out on July 16th. The lease wasn't up until October. I had to pay him $200 to move out because he only paid $250 in May and that was the last payment. So he owes for May, June and July. Also even though he only lived there for 9 months the apartment needed a lot of painting and he clearly didn't clean the whole time he lived there. But thankfully there were no damages.  The rent is $1100 a month. Hopefully I can find a tenant for September 1st.

Question: Is it worth it to go to small claims court to recoup the losses after taking the security deposit? What amount should I claim? The security deposit is $1,650.Also chances are he will not be willing to share his current address. How can I obtain his current address to send him court documents?

Thanks all!

[Sai T.]

I personally don't think it worth and you may not get a dime. Unless you have a lot time and $ to pursue him.

[Justin Fraser]

You'll have to think about the cost/benefit of pursuing this- how much could you reasonably expect to get from this person that could not make regular payments to you? How much will it cost you to get that judgement? 

I had a similar situation last year, and took the hit - view it as an education expense. Now there's no way any of my tenants will go that long without an eviction notice, so I learned from it and moved on.

[Account Closed]

Originally posted by @Jodi-Ann Bennett:

Hello All,

So I have a tenant that recently moved out on July 16th. The lease wasn't up until October. I had to pay him $200 to move out because he only paid $250 in May and that was the last payment. So he owes for May, June and July. Also even though he only lived there for 9 months the apartment needed a lot of painting and he clearly didn't clean the whole time he lived there. But thankfully there were no damages.  The rent is $1100 a month. Hopefully I can find a tenant for September 1st.

Question: Is it worth it to go to small claims court to recoup the losses after taking the security deposit? What amount should I claim? The security deposit is $1,650.Also chances are he will not be willing to share his current address. How can I obtain his current address to send him court documents?

Thanks all!

 First, be sure you send an itemization for the security deposit deductions, in the time you're supposed to for where the property is.  Even if it says you won't return anything and that they owe you money - you still have to do that within a certain time frame.

Then, yes.  I would take them to small claims court.  Get a judgment, and then even if you just turn the judgment over to a collection service, at least you will have given them a consequence.  And the collection service should hound them, and at least get it on their credit report.  And they may even get some money for you.

For the notice regarding their deposit, you normally can just send that to their last known address - which would be the property.

One way to find out their current address, if they filed a change of address with the post office, is to send them a letter and write on it - "do not forward, address correction requested" on the envelope. Then, the post office returns it to you with a yellow sticker on the envelope with their new forwarding address.

You can also hire a process server to find them for you.  They're usually not very expensive.  Where I used to live, they'd even hang around the courthouse handing out their flyers.  

[Jodi-Ann Bennett]

Thanks @Account Closed