Court Judgements when Tenant Leaves

[Matt S]

My tenant decided to vacate in month 4 of a 12 month lease. What do I need to do in order to attempt to obtain a portion of the $ owed to me? I am assuming I need to file in small claims court?

I know where this person works, but do not have a mailing address.

[Dory Peters]

The length of time someone has held a job doesn't matter.

The fact is if one has a judgment against another entity (person or business), then there's a relatively straight-forward, legal process to track down that entity, find and seize any assets (including cars, boats, registered artwork, business supplies, etc), income streams, and potential judgment claims (that your debtor might have) to pay off your judgment lien.

A person can run, but can't hide for long. Information security happens to one of my specialties. The process for tracking down cyber criminals is very similar to the one that many skip tracers, PIs, and bounty hunters use to track down deadbeats. (Here's another hint: we work together with them on some cases.) If necessary, we can monitor/track every charge, deposit/withdrawal, license renewal, credit/background check, cellphone position, EZ-PASS usage, etc. Many people don't realize--with the right subpoena(s)--that one can even track various medical procedures, insurance claims, etc. The point is that there are plenty of ways find the entities, locate the assets (or whatever else), and to collect on one's judgment.

I'll admit that these kinds of services aren't cheap. MikeOH is right that the costs to pursue the judgment probably isn't worth the effort in some cases. For example, if you're owed $200 (or less), then you might be better off to not pursue the judgment. However, if you're owed $2K (or more), then the effort might be worth the costs.

I wish I had known more about this sooner, because I could have helped several family members and friends who lost thousands of dollars to deadbeat tenants. (And yes, MikeOH, they brought it on themselves by not thoroughly screening their tenants ahead of time.)