Tenant stole from me - Possible recourse?

Question

Add this to the stories of nightmare tenants...

My tenant was late on rent payments month after month.  She ends up writing two bad checks in July, and not paying at all in August, then blocking my phone number.  I evict her.  Court ordered her to be out by 9/5/17.

She is now out, but so are my appliances.  Refrigerator, washer, and dryer are all gone.  Walls are dirty and scuffed, floors are dirty, trash is spread throughout the house.  I filed a police report of the missing appliances.  However, I'm guessing she threw them on craigslist and sold them.  I don't imagine she would go through the trouble of transporting them to a pawn shop, or dumb enough to put them in her new residence.  Therefore, I'm going to be left paying the deductible for my home insurance to replace the items.  Is there any other recourse of action that can be taken?  I'm curious to what the police can/will do in the event they don't catch her red handed with the appliances in her new residence?

Missed 2 months rent, paid a property manager twice to find a tenant for the house, spending money to deep clean the place, repaint, have carpets cleaned, replace lights, etc...  Now add replacing refrigerator, washer, and dryer to the list.  This is my nightmare tenant story.

Shaun C. · Answer

I think recovering any money/damages and paying for your property to get back on the market are the least of your worries. Screening should be #1. How did this tenant get into your rental, and what is your property manager going to do to prevent it from happening again. I don't use management, and this is why. Do they care if someone messes up your place? Hell no. They get paid to fix it.

Adam Nagao · Answer

This is happening to me right now except they didn't steal anything. Just busted up interior doors and left the place a total mess. Almost 6k to get it back to market condition. I'm in Illinois and it's 2 different suits. First for possession and back rent/fees; second for damage to the property. No personal service yet so I got possession through eviction and have to get service before going for a money judgement. I'm getting the judgement though if only for the principle of the matter. I'll try to collect initially but garnishment will be tough as the tenant is self employed. If he doesn't declare bankruptcy to discharge the debt I'll sit on the judgement and try again to collect every now and then. It lasts for 10 years but can be renewed once easily. It'll earn 9 percent interest per year calculated on the original judgement amount. I don't plan on getting any money back but am hoping to be surprised down the road because he's gotten his life together and wants to settle the debt.

Jeff Bridges · Answer

@Ben Kirchner Civil/ Small claims court is possible, and a judgement in your favor is also possible if you bring lots of documentation of appliance purchase, move-in condition/photos and move-out condition/ photos. The problem is you have to then collect on your judgement, which either can be via garnishing wages (if allowable in your jurisdiction) or trying to get a collection agency/ attorney to try to collect. So you have to consider your time taking a day off to attend court (or a rescheduled date if tenant tries to reschedule or process wasn't serve correctly). You also have to hire a process server to do skip trace and serve the court summons for proper court service. You also have to weigh if they have a W2 job and if you can garnish/ collect against the deadbeat tenant. Then you weigh all of that against the cost of a new fridge and washer dryer. $1500 or less for a basic replacement appliance package I'm guessing? Up to you...

John Koontz · Answer

@Ben Kirchner You're going to be better off going the civil route rather than the criminal route. In civil court, the standard of proof is a preponderance of the evidence, i.e. 51% or more. The standard of proof in a criminal case is proof beyond a reasonable doubt. Short of a confession or recovering the property, police aren't going to be able to file charges.

Christopher Phillips · Answer

@Ben Kirchner

Unfortunately, this is a common problem after evicting tenants. If they aren't taking appliances they are destroying the place. Police in most places won't do anything. If you take them to small claims court it won't be easy because you would have to prove they actually took the appliances. It's a bit of a racket with bad tenants.

Jeff G. · Answer

@Ben Kirchner before and after pictures are essential for this sort of thing. Going forward, take photos of the place before the tenant moves in, show them to the tenant and have them initial them... and include language in your lease that says the lawyer speak equivalent of "this is the condition I found the place in when I moved in... and this is the condition it will be in when I leave, less normal wear and tear."

In an identical future case, this could establish the presence of the appliances before and their absence after a tenant moves out.

I'm in agreement with other posters here... go after the ex-tenant in civil court (yeah, theft is a crime... yeah, it sounds like your cops are lazy... it could be worse) but as others have pointed out it's much easier to obtain a judgement in civil court.

BTW, try searching Craigslist for your appliances, you might find the old listing with enough visual context to show it is clearly your rental the unit was photographed in. It's not much, but it might help. Good luck.

Dawn Anastasi · Answer

She sounds like a real bad apple. Make sure to file any and all damages over and above the security deposit in the court system. Get the place cleaned up and re-rented ASAP so you don't lose any more money.

Matt K. · Answer

What does the lease say, does it mention what appliances are included? Do you have pictures showing condition prior to the lease starting? How was final check out done?My guess is that it's going to be hard to piece together all the documentation/proof you need.... and then even harder to collect against this tenant.  In CA you don't need an attorney for small claims and if you had proper documentation should be easy to win the judgment. But if the other person has no money/job kind of a mute point...

Ben Kirchner · Answer

Update:  Tried to file police report.  Police officer said this is a civil case, not a crime.  Suggested I talked with an attorney and took it up with small claims court.  Does anyone have experience or have an idea if this attempt at recourse would be worth while?  She's going to say she didn't do anything with the appliances.  I'm going to say they are missing, and show old pictures or receipts of the appliances.  Will this be enough for me to have a case?

Tenant stole from me - Possible recourse?

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