Going after back rent and repair costs following eviction

[Yacine Rimmo]

Hello fellow Bpers!

I have a simple question: At what point does it become worth it to go after an evicted tenant for back rent and repair costs?

I have had this tenant who has played the eviction moratorium and game stopped paying rent for 4 months. The lease ended so the tenant will be evicted for lease holdover. Usually in Allentown the process of eviction is quick enough that it is often only a waste of time to go after these tenants but the question now seems different with the accumulation of unpaid rent (cost of repair is unknown at the time).

Thank you!

[Theresa Harris]

I think it is up to you as to whether or not you want to do it and how much they owe you.  If you can go to small claims court, I would do it knowing that you will unlikely ever see that money.  It will be on their record.  

I've had two problem tenants that fortunately moved out when I posted the eviction notice (one was pre covid, other was in the fall).  Where I am, there is little point going after them as it is a very tenant friendly province and even if the tenancy board sides with you, their ruling is not binding; so you basically waste your time.  In both cases, there was lost rent, a lot of stuff to clean up and take to the dump/put on the curb for free.