legal advise Tenant voucher was retracted without proper notice.

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legal advise Tenant voucher was retracted without proper notice.

John Morris
Investor · Upper Marlboro, MD · Member since 2016 · 5 posts · 0 votes

Can anyone recommend a lawyer to recover unpaid rental fees? I am in the Maryland Prince Georges County. The amount is under $5000 with out penalty and late fees. Is it even worth the trouble or expense of obtaining legal advise? 

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  • Russell BrazilBusiness Member
    Moderator
    Real Estate Agent · Washington, D.C. · Member since 2012 · 17k+ posts · 30k+ votes
    6y

    Under $5k you can file in small claims court. After you get a judgement, then you can send them to collections.  

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  • James Gaither
    Vendor · Pasadena, MD · Member since 2016 · 43 posts · 24 votes
    6y

    @John Morris if you can get the judgment on affidavit, it can be quite reasonable. Even better if you have a legal fee shifting provision in your lease. Getting the judgment isn’t usually the issue, it’s collecting on the judgment that might be difficult. Under $5k is small claims territory but a review of your documents might reveal additional charges that you could include. Every case is a little different, but I do have clients that will retain me to prepare the docs and get the judgment even for smaller amounts.

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  • Kyle J.
    Rental Property Investor · Northern, CA · Member since 2012 · 5k+ posts · 5k+ votes
    6y

    @John Morris I’m normally one for going after a tenant that stiffs a landlord on money that’s owed to them. However, I’m curious what you mean by “voucher” in the subject of this post?

    If you’re referring to a tenant who had a Section 8 voucher, I wouldn’t spend any time/money pursuing this. Even if you were to get a judgment, most Section 8 tenants are judgment-proof, meaning you’ll never actually collect on it. 


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  • Brian Van Pelt
    Specialist · Owings Mills, MD · Member since 2017 · 485 posts · 415 votes
    6y

    @John Morris

    Depending on how your lease is worded, the Tenant is responsible for the entire amount of the lease regardless of where the money comes from.

    Section-8 vouchers are usually rescinded or retracted because the person no longer qualifies for the program or the information provided to the program initially was found to be incomplete or incorrect to begin with. 

    I would file in small claims court for a judgement, then turn collections over to a newly minted lawyer out of law school to do collections for you.  You may be surprised in a few years when you get a check in the mail.

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