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Re; Back Owed Rent

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annesdaughter

Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? CA

I need advice in collecting back owed rent. It looks like my tenants are getting out of my rental property, so I can get it ready to rent again by August. What I'd like to know is how to get my money? I know I can go to small claims court, but the tenant is living in Las Vegas, so that maybe not available. Can I use a collection agency to go after the money that is owed me? Any suggestions?
 


aabbcc

Member
If they have no assets and bad credit, you will likely never collect. I assume you did not pull a credit report (big mistake) before you rented to them. If you did, what is their FICO score? People who have a high FICO score will not want their record blemished.
 

annesdaughter

Junior Member
Yes did a credit check, references and such. Sometimes there are no guarantees. Though since I wrote this I have found out I can sue her in Las Vegas. She won't be hard to find and I will sue her in Las Vegas. My family has been LL for a long time. We've been pretty luck over 30 yrs. This is only the 2nd time we've had this problem.
 

annesdaughter

Junior Member
Meant to mention that she works and makes good money. Thats why she went to Vegas. I feel like a dog with a bone, I won't let go until I exhaust all possibilities
 

FarmerJ

Senior Member
By taking the tenant to court and if you win a judgement having a actual judgement in hand will improve your odds of getting paid SOME DAY. With out a judgement if you sent it to a collection agency the first time the former tenant formally demands validation of the debt and the collector cannot back up the claim with a with a judgement you won they will have to cease collecting it.

One thing with being willing to wait out a judgement and renewing it is that should something change for the former tenant for the better that judgement will haunt them when they go to buy that new car or even a first home and should have a negative impact on any matter related to credit.
BESIDE the simple thing that future LLs will be able to learn that the tenant had to be taken to court and it could be the reason they end up denied a nice rental they really want some day.
 

CA LL

Senior Member
Confused here? What back rent..meaning for how long? Why didn't you start eviction process (which would yield a money judgment as well) as soon as they were a few days late paying?
 

annesdaughter

Junior Member
Update to situation!

Tennants are gone. Lots of Junk. Still can't reach original tenant. While she earns good money, she stated, and I got this 2nd handed that "since they won't pay rent, she won't pay rent". So locks changed and I will send a final note in regards to the property. While I have last month and a deposit, it doesn't cover what is owed. Also there is damage in the house. They left before I could evict, so I think my course of action is to go to small claims court. My original tenant does make good money, but I don't think she cares nor expects me to pursue this further. As for validating the debt, I did serve a 3 day notice and I have copies of the bounced checks, so validating is not a problem. Since the original tenant is living in Vegas, It wouln't be a hardship to pursue this further. Also is there some type of bad tenants list I could list them on? Any response is appreciated.
 

annesdaughter

Junior Member
In response to CA LL

Until recently any and all money had always been paid, even late fees. Was never a problem, until she subleased to a guy who bounced checks on me.
 

CA LL

Senior Member
Why did you accept payment from a tenant you did not approve? In other words, you implied acceptance of the "sublease" by accepting checks from this other tenant.

Evictions should be started as soon as the payment is late. FILED with the court as soon as the 3 day legally expires (say around the 8th or so).

PLEASE when you post a question remember to include KEY FACTS. You didn't even mention any subleases in your original post. How long did you "permit" the sublease tenant to reside there and accept payment from them? Did you demand an application and approve before they moved in? Did you serve notice to original tenant they were in breach if they did this w/o your permission?

You may think my questions are not relative but they are. Especially if you plan to sue her even though you may have had an implied tenancy with this other person or persons.
 

ecmst12

Senior Member
This is not her original post. She decided NOT to post in her original thread so all the background information there is not available to people reading this one. Unhelpful of course.
 

aabbcc

Member
First OP says credit reports were run but does not provide FICO. Then OP says property was sublet to someone else.

Like I originally said, tenant likely has bad credit and no assets.

OP dropped the ball by not screening the subletter and allowing tenants to make management decisions.
 

annesdaughter

Junior Member
Re: Back Owed Rent

This forum often offers very valuable information. But sometimes some of you get a little to anal when responding. Yes my original post or "problem" is different than this one. All I wanted to know is how others of you handled this.

I have gotten some good responses. So please don't look further than the question I now ask. I admit to not handling this situation, but again, I inherited this property from my Mom, the day she died February 26, 2008. Cut me some slack. Sometimes you have to deal with a situation when you can.

Alot of you remark about tenant checking. I'm in Los Angeles, CA. Things are bad. I could rerent this house to a tenant with a great credit score, no evictions and great references, yet still face this problem along the road. I don't take the loss of money lightly at all. But I'm still learning to navigate the system. You learn through missteps and the missteps of others.

Which is what brought me here. I've lurk around and have read questions and responses. Learned alot. I now know an Attorney and a Paralegal who could get the ball rolling if ever I had to evict. I know the costs involved and the procedures available to me if and when a tenant becomes a problem again. And that is whats best about freeadvice.com.
 

CA LL

Senior Member
But when you don't answer questions asked to try and HELP you, well then you don't get the help you are asking for. We can't read minds. Being in L.A. proper, is the place under rent control ordinance or not? I am not far from L.A. though NOT under rent control and while it sometimes takes a while, you CAN screen and find decent tenants, even for low income properties such as the ones I own.

You asked about your chances to sue an out of state tenant. But in THIS thread (I'm not a mind reader so didn't know to read some other thread for the "real" info which yes DOES affect the answers given) you initially mentioned NOTHING about a subleaser. I am trying to help you and make you see that your suit may not hold up in court against original tenant as well as you think it will. And the sublease COULD come up and all that goes with it. You accepting rent FROM the subleasee makes that person YOUR tenant by implied tenancy. I'm trying to help you see that. You don't want to use a paralegal or regular attorney to help you with matters like this, you want to use a LL EVICTION law firm, one that JUST specializes in representing LL's for usually a FIXED FEE. In L.A. you have a much higher risk for losing cases than winning them as it's the most ANTI LL courts in the state. That said, since this is related to LL/Tenant matter/small claims tied to a property in CA, you may wish to recheck that ability to sue in Nevada. And even if you can, you do know you will NOT be able to recover necessary travel costs to go there and do so and appear, etc. AND in small claims court you cannot have an attorney represent you more than likely (most states including CA).

I also TRIED to help you understand that posting bits and pieces only hurts YOU and at times wastes the time of valueable contributors here as they can't advise when they don't have the facts. And we sure can't read minds.

I'm glad you SAY you learned from this..but in some statements you made, I'm not as sure. I hope you did.

You say only answer THE question you ask now but it's ALL interrelated. I've tried but not sure any of it will help as it was in response to different "scenarios" as the thread here grew and I still don't even know about the "other thread".

Sorry I do my best to HELP those who post here but only if they are willing to HELP me do so by posting the FACTS all in one place, answering further questions I may have to try and clarify things, etc.

Again..you don't want/need a paralegal/attorney just general practice or real estate, you need to work with a local LL eviction firm who FYI will do evictions for about $150 uncontested plus costs, a couple hundred more for contested and can also help with money judgments, etc. BUT your plan to do out of state small claims...not gonna be able to utilize them. THAT is why I was trying to help you understand what went wrong...as you missed out on the "real" opportunity and in fact made the situation much worse by allowing your tenant to sublet but then YOU accepted rent from the sublease tenant which THEN makes a DIRECT relationship with YOU and that person.

Using anyone BUT a SPECIALTY law firm that only represents LL's in evictions, etc. might actually hurt you because suprisingly MOST CA lawyers do not even KNOW LL/Tenant law and CERTAINLY not L.A. rent control ordinance restrictions law let alone general CA state LL/Tenant law.
 
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