Collecting debt from an Ex-Tenant

[Ethan Mei]

A little over a year ago, I encountered a landlord's worst nightmare. The tenants I had stopped paying rent. Being inexperienced, I kept giving them more time hoping they would play catch up and pay the late rent fees. Eventually, after nearly 2 months, I decided to take action and provided a notice to vacate the premises. After being unreachable for many weeks, I was finally able to get a hold of the tenant. He had lost his job and was in and out of the hospital due to health problems arising from alcoholism. His girlfriend and her children left him and moved out of the property. The entire house was filled with trash, pet urine all over the carpets, and the toilets were filled with feces. The water was shut off because they stopped paying the utilities. Fortunately, the tenant agreed to terminate the lease and move out. I had contractors estimate the clean-up and repairs cost (including new carpet) to be approximately $10,000. The rent he owed minus the security deposit was around $3100. Before we parted ways, I wrote a Promissory Note explaining the rent and repair expenses owed and the tenant signed it. Now that it has been over a year since this incident with no news from the ex-tenant, I am considering to work either through a Collection Agency or a Law Firm to collect the owed money. The Collection Agency I found does not ask for any upfront costs, but they take 50% of the money collected. The Law Firm requires me to pay $350 upfront but I would get 100% of the money collected. I've never worked with either so I don't know if one or the other has a better success rate. I am interested in hearing what other landlords think about this situation and what they have done in the past to collect dues from ex-tenants. Thank you all in advance for your guidance and insight.