Judgement Question - Contact/Legal

[Daniella Steinberg]

Hi - 

I have a former tenant who was behind on rent, and then vacated the house without notice. I now have a judgement to reclaim some of the lost $, but she has been totally silent and has not replied to any communication, nor shown up in court. 

This property is managed by a property manager, is it appropriate for the PM to call/visit her place of employment, call/email her boss etc, in order to try to get in touch? I would hate to have to go to a collections agency.  How do I find out what kind of contact is appropriate, before it is too aggressive? Is it best to just contact lawyer (for the specific state)?

Thank you

[Account Closed]

I believe it is wrong for you to personally try to contact your ex-tenant because doing so will make you emotional and put you in a bad state-of-mind. Constantly, trying to be a detective and trying to collect money owed will make you go crazy and make you hate owning rental properties. The worse part is; after wasting your time and losing sleep at night you will never get one penny of your money.

Go to the court and find out how to garnish your ex-tenants wages since you know where he (or she) works. But, that still requires a lot of work and your time.

Your best option may be to have a collection company collect on the judgement. They may take 50%, but I think it is a good value since you will probably go crazy before you personally get a penny back.