likelyhood of actually receiving rent; via court

[Frank Fiore Jr]

Background Information
1. Tenant is out of the apartment
2. Owes 7k +/- in back rent / heating oil
3. I have TAW agreement and a document he signed on the day he moved out stating he owes the above mentioned monies, and would make payments weekly.
A. He has not made weekly payments (shocker)
B. He did not leave a forwarding address; I am working on finding that out
4. This is in Massachusetts....

If I take him to small claims:
1. I'm assuming I will get a judgement for less than the full amount; he will cry hardship I'm sure.
2. A lien will be placed on whatever he owns; which I believe to be nothing

Questions
1. Can or will they garnish his paycheck?
2. What is the likelihood this would occur? He is already paying child support; and having issues with that
3. If they rely on him actually paying me directly; what will taking him to court do; he refuses to do this already?
4. And if I am understanding this correctly; there is no guarantee he will show up for a court date; and I'm assuming if he doesn't the process does not move forward.

FYI.. I have upped my yoga classes to 5 times a week; it seems to help....

[Jeff Bridges]

The good news is small claims in MA goes up to 7k, so you can make a claim for 7k even. Collecting the judgement is the hardest part and certainly might give you pause before you follow through with $150 small claim fee and time/ energy spent in court. expect a couple of visits to court to obtain judgement, even if defendant doesn't show. You will absolutely have to successfully serve a summons before the judge will hear your case. The easiest way is to hire a process server, have their info ready to put on the small claims paperwork, then have them find and serve the summons. there are a couple of process server companies who will charge $50 for the service fee (I like the ones that offer the no serve no pay service) and then another 25-30 for the skip trace service (they track down the defendant for you). Just put the last known address and provide any info/ SSN you have that may help them. See below for steps to garnish wages, but again, if they have no job, there will be nothing to garnish. finally, there are more fees/ process server fees/ and energy to force them to pay you judgement on top of above (obtaining the writ of execution). Usually a lot more pain and minimal likelihood of being successful means, its best to move on in my opinion.... All of the above is just personal experience, not legal advice...

info on collecting a judgement in MA:
http://research.lawyers.com/Massachusetts/MA-Collecting-the-Judgment.html