About to Collect On a Judgement!

[Kevin Sobilo]

I've heard many times that its not worthwhile to sue tenants or to try to collect on the judgements against them. So, I wanted to share a story where it appears I am about to successfully collect the majority of a judgement.

I had a tenant that I evicted a couple years ago. I had a judgment from when I evicted and a second one after she was finally out for damages.

When my tenant failed to pay the 1st judgment after 30 days, I recorded the judgement in the county prothonotary's office where it becomes a general lien on any property they own within that county.

I found that my tenant owned a vacant uninhabitable home that she had bought for about $14k a few years prior. Unfortunately, my tenant also had a judgement lien from a local college so I was in the 2nd lien position on that house. However, these types of judgments need to be revived periodically in court or they time out and the college's lien was nearly up.

I waited for the college's lien to be up. During that time, I found that the tenant managed to sell the property to a cash buyer who didn't do a title search or get title insurance.

I contacted this buyer. They were very nice, but their English isn't so good. After months of prodding them along and with the help of an interpreter they used when buying the house, I have finally gotten a written proposal for them to pay on the judgment from their lawyer.

They are offering to pay about 70% of the judgment amount, which I think in the collections game is a pretty good win. I still may negotiate it further, but the end is finally in sight.

Yes, this effort did take a long time in calendar days, but really not that much in terms of man hours. So, it was a worthwhile effort. In addition, they say you pay for your education, and through this effort I have gained a lot of good experience.

Anyone else who has had success with collecting, please share some stories!

[Dennis Cosgrave]

I had a tenant skip out on me and had the audacity to move to an apartment three doors down the street. Every time he saw me he would just laugh at me. My attorney advised me to sue. If I didn’t the tenant might spread the word that I was a pushover and I might experience more of the same with other tenants. That made sense so I sued and got a judgement. The tenant had no assets so my attorney filed a garnishment order on his wages. The tenant worked as a cook in a high end restaurant nearby. He did not earn a lot so the garnishment amounted to about $25 a month. However, the restaurant ignored the garnishment order so my attorney filed a motion to have the judgement transferred to the restaurant. On the day of the hearing, the restaurant owner nor his attorney even bothered to show up so the judge granted the motion. Several days later the attorney for the restaurant owner contacted my attorney to discuss a settlement. My attorney said we would settle for 100%. The attorney refused. Several weeks later, the sheriff raided The restaurant on a saturday night around 12 pm, confiscated all the cash and all the liquor. The cash was not sufficient to satisfy the judgement so the liquor was sold to make up the difference. I got my money plus court costs and attorney fees. After that, every time the tenant saw me, he went out of his way to avoid me. I got a reputation for being a bad *** landlord. 😎