Filing Warrant In Debt

[DoGood]

What is the name of your state? VA

We have a townhouse in Virginia that we rented out to a family on Section 8 since February 2004. The tenants became disrespectful, destructive and were missing payments for their portion of the rent as well as being late. We sent notice and informed them that they need to pay missing rent and late fees and due to breach of lease condition they must go. They moved out on December 31st and left the place in a bad condition, resulting in over $6,000.00 cost to repair the damages.

Housing made them pay the missed payments and late fees and told us to take them to court for the damages.

We were advised to file a warrant in debt in the state of Virginia. What would be the best way to go about filing a warrant in debt because we are unfamiliar with the process?

We appreciate your feedback. Thanks.What is the name of your state?

 

[Cvillecpm]

This is the process:

File in Small Claims in VA for up to $5,000. If they are Suction8, it is doubtful you will get any money so don't spend $$$ or an attorney.

NEVER rent to Suction8.

 

[moburkes]

And, your LandLord insurance policy would have paid for the damages, minus your deductible, so, you shouldn't be out $6,000.

 

[DoGood]

Warrant In Debt UPDATE: Verbal Agreements

Thanks Cvillecpm and moburkes for your feedback, we appreciate them.

At this time we were able to file the warrant in debt to a husband and wife couple in the amount of $9,600. This amount includes the damages they caused of over $6,000 and 2 months rent they owe since we could not rent the place in the condition they left it in.

We found out in Virginia the Small Claim amount is up to $15,000. So we were able to file for all the damages and lost rent.

What we would like to know now is: At the time we had the tenants in our property we had a written lease agreement for Feb 2004 - Feb 2005 and we notify them verbally with witnesses that in order to continue living in our unit they must agree to another lease for as long as they stay in our unit. Since they were with Section 8 we continued the agreement and confirmed with Housing. They verbally agreed and we sent an Addendum in August 2006 to extend the lease agreement to Feb 2007 to the tenants and to their Section 8 Housing Agent. It took some time due personal matters and getting an attorney to review the Addendum, but that never seemed to be a problem our attorney indicated at the time, just as long as it was done. In November 2006, the tenants tried to send us a 30 days notice that they are leaving then told us to disregard it. We send them back a notice that they have back payments and late payments and are causing serious demages that we will not tolerate. We demanded that they correct the problems or they would have to leave due to breach of the lease. The end up leaving Dec. 31, 2006 and claimed they didn't agree to the lease since they never signed the Addendum. We checked with the Housing Agent and now she claims that it's note her responsibility to get them to sign the Addendum eventhough she gave us the impression that everything was fine. An attorney informed us that doesn't matter since it was understood that a lease was involved and both parties were notified and agreed verbally.
How should we go about claiming all this in court and proving this to the judge?
What documents do we need?
Should we bring in witnesses? How many?
We value your comments - THANKS!

 

[Cvillecpm]

DG --- The VA Small Claims limit is $5,000 NOT $15,000.

You need an attorney who is familiar with Section8 housing rules and regulations.

My question is....if these people are on Section8, WHY do you think you will get any money from them?

You are MUCH BETTER OFF to sue them in Small Claims without an attorney for the max of $5,000 THAN spending money on attorney fees for a judgement of $9,000 THAT YOU MAY NEVER RECEIVE.

Cut your losses and sue them in Small Claims yourself if you know where they are to sue them...

 

[DoGood]

CV - Just to answer your question regarding section 8 claim - we have found that a lot of people who are on this program are taking advantage of it. It doesn't mean that they are poor and have no money. In this case we are dealing with people who don't want to take ownership for their responsibilities so they rather get over and use taxpayer dollars to get what they want. Trust me they are living the good life and it's sad to say this program is allowing them to do so.

Also, perhaps since you are located in Cental VA the limit is $5,000 - we are in Northern Virginia. I think it may be different in Fairfax, Alexandria and Prince William Counties, etc...

This is a Small Claim Suit, does anyone else have ideas of what would be our best approach to prove our case to the judge our court date is in May?
If not, thanks anyways for your time.

 

[Cvillecpm]

DG - Virginia court limits are STATEWIDE....the limit for GENERAL DISTRICT COURT is $15,000 and Small Claims is a lesser division of General District Court AND the limit is $5,000 up from $2,000 as of July, 2006.....I do 4 to 5 Small Claims Court cases a year.

If you are in Small Claims in May, you need to have your case together on the trail date. If there is an earlier SCC hearing date, you should go on that date and see what happens and how the proceedings go.

Make sure you keep any "original" documents and have copies for the Defendant AND the Judge.

 

[DoGood]

CV, I do apologize you are right! After reviewing our documents, I noticed we filed this warrant in debt with the Prince William County General District Court, which determines why the claim amount is $15,000.

Thanks again for the input.

 

[CA LL]

I seriously doubt you will get that two months rent past when they vacated.

In most states...you can only collect additional rent if they break a SIGNED FIXED TERM lease. Section 8 typically goes from one year to MTM after first year UNLESS YOU SIGN a new FIXED TERM lease. That was not done.

You typically CAN NOT collect "down time" for the rental on MTM..only to the day they vacate up through appropriate notice required period.

I seriously would revised the claim to just PURE DOCUMENTED PROVEABLE DAMAGES to the structure. Remember that you can only claim "depreciable" life of items too..for example you can't charge to replace ten year old carpet, etc.

Sue in SMALL CLAIMS not DISTRICT COURT for 5K OR LESS..whatever the "real" damages are to the place NOT for any of the rent after..you do NOT HAVE the evidence you need to win that one.

Besides..you'll probably NEVER collect a dime on this. You should have asked this question BEFORE you filed anything. And your first post implied that was the case...then little by little you admitted you had already filed in one court and that you didn't even understand the difference in the two court levels. SMALL CLAIMS is the way to go for these cases if at all. And you'd best have a LOT of backup, evidence, etc..you do not.

Also..do you have move in condition checklist SIGNED by them and pictures? Do you have then move out of same areas and pictures to display actual damages? You "failed" on the "addendum" as you call it..never getting it signed..verbal "intent" means nothing in a court of law..presumed MTM unless documented in writing and signed by all parties.

Good luck.

 

[acmb05]

In most states...you can only collect additional rent if they break a SIGNED FIXED TERM lease. Section 8 typically goes from one year to MTM after first year UNLESS YOU SIGN a new FIXED TERM lease. That was not done.

Section 8 does not allow MTM tenancy. When they accepted the addendum and sent landlord the check they then agreed to carry the lease over, however this does not affect the tenants portion of the rent unless they signed it also.

Besides..you'll probably NEVER collect a dime on this,Good luck.

Wanna bet? From my experience on section 8 renters ( I have had a couple) They depend on thier income tax every year when they get that big ass refund check for the 48 kids that they have. When you get your judgement you can immediately file to attach thier income tax refund. Won't they be surprised when they get a letter in the mail telling them that thier refund has been forwarded to you. It's a little bit of a pain in the butt to get it but well worth it in the end. I would never tell someone NOT to file. You never know the old tenant could hit the lotto. At least the landlord will have some kind of judgement to go after any monies the tenant does get.

Example: A person with 4 kids and reporting the minimum income to qualify for section 8 housing will get a tax refund somewhere in the range of $4500.00 to $6000.00, between the earned income credit and additional child tax credit. So if you sue for $9000.00 you will have it all back in 2 years. File for it as soon as you can though because there are procedures you and the IRS have to follow and that takes as much as 6 months sometimes.