Collecting From Tenant

[Maciej So]

Background:

My new tenant abandoned her 12 month lease after staying at the property for just a little less than a month.  She stated some family emergency and only gave me 3 days notice but only after I reached out right before her first payment was due.  The apartment was not cleaned, she left a bunch of her stuff as well (furniture, mattress).  I reached out to her and her referral but got no additional money apart from the security deposit and her first month's rent at move in.  

I'm staying positive and am a prime believer of using any negative situation as a learning experience.  When screening, this tenant had recently moved to the state for school.  She had a great credit score and a solid job history.  Now I see the importance of getting a lot of contact info on both the tenant and any emergency contacts.  I had her fill out the app and screening through Zillow.  The only issue is that Zillow doesn't provide landlord back with social security numbers.  I also realized the importance of checking the lease for completion.  The tenant didn't fill out an emergency contact address I only got an email and phone.  The biggest problem is that since the tenant was rather young, all the previous addresses for herself were apartments so I have no permanent address to trace back to her.

After reading advice on this forum, I've realized that going through small claims court for the money is not worth the trouble and money.  I decided to go through the Rent Recovery Service website to collect the amount the tenant owes.  As I'm getting the vibe that regular Collections Agencies prefer working with businesses that have multiple past due accounts they can sell them.  Not sure how many companies will want to buy a single lease off of an inexperienced landlord.  

Question:

 Rent Recovery Service seems to just send out collections letters and report none payment to credit bureaus instead of actually buying  the lease off of me.  If that is the case I think I have the choice of what money I am going after the tenant for.  The two options I have is for the full 12 months of the lease contract or the early termination deal I previously discussed with tenant of 3 month's rent plus any late payment charges.  On the one hand the tenant ticked me off in terms of how she left my property without notice and hasn't taken any responsibility in working with me outside of legal proceedings so pretty happy to stiff her with the full amount.  On the other hand I might have a better chance of getting some sort of money from her for just the 3 months plus late payments.

[Andrew B.]

Slow down bud. In no state are you able to just charge her for all 12 months, because she skipped out on the lease. While it is true that she signed a legally binding agreement, you have a legal responsibility to mitigate your losses. That means cleaning and re-renting asap. Any days that the unit is vacant, you are allowed to take her to small claims for.

In your situation, first you need to determine if unit is abandoned or not. If you have written verification that tenant has left unit you are probably golden to go in and clean it out. Save all receipts as that can be billed back to her. Any large items left behind will need to be handled according to your states guidelines for abandoned property. this may or may not require you to store it for a period of time before throwing it away. If there are only small items, you may be safe to throw it away. Once unit is cleaned, apply any damages and unpaid rent against the security deposit and send her an accounting of the balance/bill. This must be done within the timeframe your state laws dictate. Failure to follow state laws here may mean you owe tenant their deposit. In many states the timeframe is 30 days after tenant turns over unit.

Once you have cleaned unit and put a new renter in, you have successfully mitigated your damages. You can feel free to pursue the tenant for the losses.

You should spend some time reviewing your states local landlord/tenant laws. This will give you all the answers you may need.