Can you small claims tenant for rent who has NOT been evicted?

Question

Eviction moratorium, Connecticut.  Wanna know if it precludes suing a tenant in small claims for unpaid rent, who has NOT yet been evicted?  Of course we cannot file eviction yet, because of the eviction moratorium.

Wayne Bolen · Answer

What outcome do you expect? They're not agreeing to a contract to pay you, so why do you think they would listen to what a civil court tells them to do? My guess is if they're not paying rent, they likely don't have money to pay you after court anyway.

Dominic R. · Answer

It seems to me you would be suing them before you know how much they will owe.  If you sue them now and later they owe more rent or have damages you will have to sue them again.  I would try and work out a payment plan for now and wait on the legal action.  I found out the hard way that even if you sue, they still don't pay, forcing even more action to try and collect.  If they have no assets you are up the creek.

Mat O'Grady · Answer

@Karen F. I have heard other investors have been suing tenants in small claims court, but I haven't heard of any results. During normal circumstances, I don't even bother suing in small claims court because my tenants who I have had to evict, didn't have anything for me to sue for. I suppose if you have a tenant who cares about their credit, you could sue and then if you win, you can put it in collections.

Good luck and let us know if anything comes of it!

Mat O'Grady · Answer

@Karen F. Thanks for the update. Glad to hear they are at least out of the apartment.

Aj Parikh · Answer

I recently talked to a lawyer after I got my tenant evicted if I could sue her for non payment of rent and they advised me that it would be helpful to know where the tenant is employed and where their bank account is. If you have these details, it will be easier to get the rent amounts back.

If you know that the tenant is unemployed, it will be hard to recover any money and you will end up paying more in lawyer and court fees.

Karen F. · Answer

Just to give an update.  The tenant DID move out in mid February, owing Dec, Jan, and Feb rent.  Remember, this is in a state where tenant has to be behind a total of six months' rent before you can begin an eviction, and that process would take at least another 3 months, could easily be strung out to six months.

In small claims (which was heard by a housing court judge), the judge tried to throw it out, because even though the tenant attended the hearing (all virtually), she claimed she hadn't been notified properly.  Housing court judge tried to apply housing court rules, saying I had to have proof of having served her by a marshal.  I HAD served her by a marshal, even though it's not required for small claims, but we hadn't filed it with housing court because it wasn't an eviction, which of course we're not allowed to begin under the moratorium!

I pointed this out to the judge, and she backed down - honestly, she was trying every which way she could to figure out how she could throw out the suit!  She did award us what we had asked for, which was two months' rent, at the time we had filed it.

I don't know if we'll be able to collect it.  We'll try.  And they left the place trashed and vandalized.  But it could have been much worse.  I do think that going after them for the owed rent, while they were still in there, helped to encourage them to move out more quickly than they would have.  Otherwise we could have easily lost 9-12 months' rent.  And these people were never going to cooperate with the paperwork needed for an assistance program, plus after they left we discovered that ALL the outlets were melted, from their having been using space heaters (they didn't pay anything for electric, since it was under dead husband's name, and shutoff moratorium), so we consider it a miracle that they didn't burn the multifamily down.

So YES, you can start a small claims against a non-paying tenant, despite the eviction moratorium, and it may help to motivate them to leave sooner.

Peter Sosnow · Answer

At this point, I would wait to see if anything comes from the Stimulus/rental assistance bill.  It seems that holds more promise for landlords then the courts.

Dominic R. · Answer

It seems to me you would be suing them before you know how much they will owe.  If you sue them now and later they owe more rent or have damages you will have to sue them again.  I would try and work out a payment plan for now and wait on the legal action.  I found out the hard way that even if you sue, they still don't pay, forcing even more action to try and collect.  If they have no assets you are up the creek.

Can you small claims tenant for rent who has NOT been evicted?

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