Tenant left buying new home,owning back rent. Suggestions needed

[Nancy Wang]

I have a single family house in Alabama. I am out of state and manage it myself. Lease ends in 7/15/2018. Tenant started to pay rent late back in November of last year. I have been working with the wife on allowing her to be late with a minimal late fee. I treat her with understanding and respect.

In April, after many excuses like grandpa passed away etc, she finally said she could not afford the rent anymore because her husband had lost his job for a while. I told her she can leave and try to pay the back rent when she is able to. By the day she moved out in early May the back rent is $4900. Of course after she moved out, I was not able to get hold on her anymore by email or phone.

I inspected the property. I can tell she tried to clean the house but a lot of junk left in the yard. She insisted she had made arrangement for somebody come to pick up but nobody showed up. After a week, HOA picked it up and charged me $375. She also had painted the house with unfinished job – a few rooms only painted partially with a drastically different color. Her dog has been lived in the garage it smells so bad. The garage ceiling has a huge hole looks like somebody has fell thru it. The yard is a messy I spent $600 to get it cleaned.

I had the house remodeled and sold it in July.

I was ready to let her go feeling sympathy of her husband’s job loss. But one neighbor told me that the tenant actually bought a house nearby. I tracked down her new address and confirmed by county record that they did purchase a new construction home which worth 2 times of my rental property. They actually have the money but chose not to pay the rent and take advantage of my sympathy.

Their back rent by the day they move out is $4900. By the end of lease (2 months more) is $4900+$3000. They have $1450 security deposit. Even I don’t charge them anything on the house damage (I remodeled the house for $10,000 I know I should not charge them for that), they owe me around $6500.

I have sent them a bill in certified mail requesting an immediate payment but no response. It has been 3 weeks.

What should I do next? It is in Alabama. I am out of state. I am determined to hold them responsible. If they cannot afford to pay, that will be different. But for people who can buy an expensive new house, it is unforgivable to not pay their bill. Please let me know what you think. Sue them in small claim court? I am out of state so I would need hire a local attorney.

Thanks for any thoughts/suggestions.