It is bad enough to reward criminal tenants but not having a eviction on their record impedes the rest of us from properly screening them in the future. 

If guilty, you will be ordered to pay damages, and the maximum first offense penalty is $16,000 plus attorney's fees and court costs.

No offense, but that is just scamming your family to take 3% of their home value from them.

Could be civil and/or criminal depending on the transaction.

Its mainly to get a criminal background and eviction record.

Unless otherwise provided by law, proof of violations shall not require criminal conviction, but shall be by the preponderance of the evidence."

These days, state laws hold landlord responsible for renting to sex offenders and criminals, and I'm not sure how my insurance company would handle it if one of your subtenants, a known child molester, molested a neighbor's kid.

You or your attorney can file private criminal complaints or whatever, but dollars to donuts, that money is gone.Remember, you cannot collect a judgement against someone who has no income and owns nothing. 

Basically if you have ever been evicted I will not rent to you (assuming I find out which we do a credit and criminal screening). 

I had the parent fill out a rental application so I could run his credit.I also paid a few dollars extra to check his criminal record (the apartment association in that area does both my credit and criminal checks for me).