And when you go to a church to seek assistance people are confronted with "humility" and "moral judgement" and such.

At the worst, the investments are the same if a deficiency judgement is pursued against the borrower.

From what I understand all liens/judgement must be filed at one of those government entity offices.

They will go on FMV, which sometimes is 60% of judgement, sometimes 20%.

Get a judgement and try to collect on it.

The landlord can put that in the lease but it doesn't mean it will hold up in court.A judge will likely throw that part of the provision out and make the landlord go through the normal eviction process.We have a clause where the rent is late on the 5th and then an eviction fee of 150 is added on plus 10 dollars a day for each day they are late.The judge gives us the 150 and back rent as a judgement but sees the 10 dollars a day as excessive in most cases and will not give to us.We have it in there to make the tenant feel the heat and want to pay the rent instead of letting 10 dollars a day accrue.I am sure it is the same way with this other landlord.Most of their tenants are probably not fully educated on eviction law.So they assume they must leave by the 15th because they signed the paper.

But, not knowing the area, I'm not going to make judgements or assumptions about what 'top dollar' is out there.Someone commented earlier about what guru he had seen who did this.

It's funny that it will all catch up to them in the end.Yest, but your mortgage specifically states the consequences of not paying back your debt - you lose your collateral, ruin your credit rating, and possibly face a deficiency judgement for the balance.

At lease signing he stated he was retired from GM and had two incomes but as it turns out he has 32 judgements against him just in the county I live in.

if not, tell them that if you receive a call, you will have to be truthful about how the place was treated & how they handed the deposit. also tell them you tell LL you will be following up with the LL after departure of tenants.finally, tell them if they apply last month's as rent you will seek a judgement which can affect their future ability to rent & own.just some thoughts/ideas.