What else do I need to do? ?

Question

I no longer believe in the justice system.

Let me explain..

Because I was moving out of state, I rented out my home to a family I thought would take care of it.

Instead, it turned into a nightmare. They paid their rent only 2 months on time. Then, they quit paying altogether. I repeatedly gave them chances and they repeatedly lied about when they were going to pay.

So, I sent them an eviction notice. They moved out.

I decide to take a trip to the property the day after they move to clean and to get it ready for sale. I walked in the front door and I literally almost vomited.

There was trash everywhere, the kitchen had old food on the counter, the trash had dirty diapers, the bathroom had f***s on the wall, the kids wrote on the walls, there was a hole in hte living room wall... do I need to go on?

After catching my breath, I decide to take a look in the basement. Much to my surprise, my washer and dryer are gone. The renters stole my washer and dryer. There is no other possibility.

I call the cops, write up a report and call a lawyer.

Cops can only file a report and put a warrant out for his arrest. So, basically, if he minds his Ps and Qs and doesn't get pulled over, then nothing can happen.

Lawyer can file judgement against the renter and ask to garnish wages for unpaid rent. However, the washer and dryer could not be included.

All the while, that d**n renter is sitting somewhere with my washer and dryer with clean clothes!

I feel there was no justice here. He lives in my house for free, ruins the interior, steals from me then leaves. Which leaves me paying 2 mortgages and financially strapped.

What else can I do?

Answer 1

That's the chance you take when you choose to rent out your property.  The only action you can do now is take them to small claims court (or big claims court depending on the damages) and hope to win a judgment against them, then hope to collect the judgment.

Answer 2

What else can you do???? How bad do you want to get this person??? The first thing you need to do is get the warrant. Then you search for him either on your own or thru a Private Investigator. If you have his SS# you are gold, if not there are still ways. The PI runs the SS#, locates the dirt bag, you call the cops and tell them where he lives. As long as he is still in the same state where the warrant was filed. Then, once he is in the pokey go after him in court. Some states give a cash reward for turning in a wanted person.

You will want to take him to court and get a judgment. If he pays it, good. If not, you can put the judgment on his credit report for what he owes you. If he tries to rent from someone else and they screen him, it will show up and he may not get the place he wanted.

Good luck!!!

Answer 3

I am sorry that this happened to you. You found out the hard way that renting a property is not as easy as letting someone move in and collecting rent.

There are horrible tenants out there and they pounce on inexperienced landlords. It is a hard lesson to learn.

I hope that you are able to collect from these deadbeats, but my experience tells me that you are going to have a hard time.

Unfortunately, you were ill prepared to be a landlord, especially a long distance landlord.

Did you thoroughly check out your tenants' backgrounds - credit, criminal, rental, eviction, court & employment histories - prior to renting from them?

If not, you handed over your property worth $100K or more to people that you knew nothing about and trusted that they would take care of it.

You could have taken action and began the eviction process the first time they were late or failed to pay the rent. They strung you along, which tells me they have more likely than not done this before.

regardless of when you evicted them, they would have left your property a mess because that is the MO of deadbeats.

  

Answer 4

Write up a final accounting of your total cost to restore the property to the condition it was in when they moved in.  Make sure you have receipts for EVERYTHING.  Make sure to include the cost to replace anything missing.

Send this to any and all known addresses - mother, brother, sister, friends - any address you can come up with including the address rented at.  You never know if they have forwarded mail or is getting from a relative.

take him to small claims court for a judgment against them and then you can take it to collections.

It may take a while - but when ever he surfaces again he will be in deep S@#T!