Tenant Moved Out, Unpaid Rent Due, Collections or Repayment Plan?

Question

Hello BiggerPockets Community!I apologize in advance if this topic has already been discussed but I was unable to find it.  I have a tenant who moved out of one of my rental units in Bellevue, WA, in July 2021.  He stopped paying rent starting in April, 2021 and now owes about $8K. Fortunately the unit was cleaned and undamaged, and I sold it shortly after.

When he moved out, he of course said he would pay back the amount due, but couldn't provide a repayment timeline. He also failed to provide me with a forwarding address despite repeated attempt to get this information from him. He has now gone radio silent by phone, text and email and no attempt has been made to repay any of the outstanding rent.

My question is as follows: do I need to offer him a specific rental repayment plan that mirrors the requirements set forth in SB 5160 (send him a letter offering him a repayment plan with monthly amounts due that are not to exceed 1/3 of the monthly rental amount)? And only if he fails to respond and/or agree to the plan within 14 days, or if he agrees to the plan but misses a payment deadline, then am I able to move forward with pursuing collections?

Or, at this point, am I free to move forward with pursuing collections ASAP (without offering him a payment plan). Secondly, if I wish to be more reasonable, can I make one more attempt to offer a repayment plan of my choosing and within a shorter timeframe, and then pursue collections if he fails to respond to that plan and/or starts missing payments per the terms of the plan?

Thank you for any clarification that can be provided.

Sherief Elbassuoni · Answer

@Josh Tsang, you can offer repayment plan just to cover your basis, even if the probability of getting your money back through that is very slim.

After that, go to the collection route

Theresa Harris · Answer

You are unlikely to ever see any of the money, so you may as well do collections and let them spend the time trying to locate him.

Jason H. · Answer

My personal experience with unpaid rent and collections is that it’s 99.99% guaranteed you won’t get the money back.  What you can do is file a case against the tenant and have it go on their records and affect their credit.  Unfortunately there’s always going to be bad apples…

Account Closed · Answer

I don't believe in getting myself emotional trying to collect money that cannot be collected. You can go to court 5 to 7 times, win every time and no court can force your ex-tenant to pay.

Josh Tsang · Answer

Thank you, everybody.  If anyone has a recommended collections company (or two), I would be most appreciative!

Mary M. · Answer

https://kingcounty.gov/depts/c...https://www.wmfha.org/news/sea...i m not associated with these links at all - I found them via google

Mary M. · Answer

if you are in WA the first thing to do is research if you have any programs via your housing authority that will pay you for this rent.   In Oregon we have such a program and I have been paid 100% for the unpaid rent for a tenant that let during Covid. You can probably call 211 or your local housing authority to get info or maybe try google.

Curtis Mears · Answer

@Josh Tsang

If he has cut off communications, stop wasting time and move to collections. You will probably receive nothing, but it will help other landlords down the road.

Theresa Harris · Answer

You already offered to set up a payment plan and they are now ghosting you. They've had 4 months to follow through on what he promised.  Life is too short, go to collections

Josh Tsang · Answer

Thanks, Theresa.  That is my assumption as well.  But to clarify, I guess my question is really:  do I need to first offer my former tenant a repayment plan and follow a specific timeline and process to do this, or am I free to head down the collections route ASAP with no need to first offer a repayment plan?   The only information I could find from various state, county and other various rental resources focuses entirely on how to go about the eviction process or collection of debt (while the tenant remains in the unit), following the expiration of the eviction moratorium.  It doesn't seem that dealing with my use-case is widely discussed.  I'm assuming I can just move forward with collections now since he has moved out and an eviction is no longer a concern, but would be curious to know if anyone else has experienced my use-case yet and is able to confirm that my assumption is true.

Thank you!

Tenant Moved Out, Unpaid Rent Due, Collections or Repayment Plan?

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