How to locate an exact address of a past tenant

[Ersin Deger]

Hello,

Soooo.. I need to get the address of a past tenant to be able to sue them in small claims court. My house is in Ohio... I have their rental application from three years ago, so I have their SSN etc. I know she found a job in Tampa FL, so she and the husband must be residing there. But I cannot find their address online. (And obviously, they are playing dead as they ignore / not respond to my calls or messages).

i know where she now works from LinkedIn. 

I also know they changed their address at USPS... something came over from USPS mentioning the change for the family.. I also know about the "Address Service Requested" trick, but the USPS worker would not let me type that on their envelope.

i also learnt that I cannot sue them here in Ohio, but have to do it in FL. I am willing to do that without a heart beat.

How do I sue them? I need to find their address to serve them some papers when I file it there.

[Kyle J.]

@Ersin Deger  Was the rental this tenant lived at in Ohio?  (That's how I read your post when you said "my house is in Ohio" and this ex-tenant now lives in Florida.)  If so, why do you think you can't sue her in Ohio?  I'd argue you have to sue her in Ohio.  Perhaps I read that wrong though.  

To answer your question, if you know where she works (from LinkedIn), just hire a local process server and have her served at her work and don't waste any time figuring out where she lives.  Personal service just requires exactly that...personal service.  There's nothing that says it has to occur at a person's home.  Work is fine.

I had to take an ex-tenant to small claims court once (owed me $6k) and she was also avoiding me and I couldn't find where she lived, but I found where she worked.  So I hired a process server and had her served at work.  I collected every bit of that $6k.

Best of luck to you.