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[rushford79]

So my renter told me that she got lay off about 2 months ago, last month she managed to collect donation from church and pay the rent, she is supposed to pay this month rent on the 1st and she told us that she is collecting money again and will pay us the money and late fee on the 10th (she requested a 3 days pay or vacate notice and we did give her one). So after 10 days she paid the late fee only and said she will pay the rent later, we waited and when our property mgr contact her, she refused to operate with him and threaten him that there is no law that she needs to clean up the place for potential renter to see, she messed up the place as much as possible and tell him to go in at our own risk. now the late fee check she gave us is bounced, she now owe us one month rent, all the late fee, water bills and such...She said she is going to move out on the 25th and clean up the place during the weekend. I have my property mgr went there and check out her place and he said the hse is in bad condition, he cannot get a hold of her and window screen is missing, carpet will need to be replaced, etc. I am not sure if she will even show up to hand the keys directly to my agent or provide us the address when she moved. We still have her copy of lease agreement, screening info, my question is, what action can we take in order to collect our money back? is there a way we can go after them and have them to pay all the late and unpaid rent and the repairing fee? I know we can try collection agency but they charge 50% of the payment and we would like to know if there are any alternative. NOTE: We live in WA state. Thanks

[delron72]

There are a couple of options you have in collecting the past due late fees, rent and damages to your rental property.

#1 File a small claims law suit against this person. You would have to have someone serve the court documents to her. The local court would have servers that would charge you a fee for this service.You would be able to go to court, present your side of the argument. If your former tenant showed up she would be able to present her side of the dispute. If your former tenant failed to show for the court case, you would win by default.

If you are successful in obtaining a judgment against her the judge would tell the amount you would be awarded. Normally most would include court cost.

With your judgment you would have to figure out a way of collecting this judgment you have won. You may attach any bank account, garnish wages or other legal means of obtaining the judgment.

There are some companies that would do the collecting on your behalf, they would want a certain percentage of the note. You could sell the judgment to companies that would be willing to purchase the judgment from you at a discount.

#2 You could write any any all unpaid rent, late fees and damages on your federal income tax return.

This method might be a better options as if this person does not have a job and her husband is working a low wage job collecting on a judgment from small claims court might be difficult and you would have your judgment, but no way of collecting.

This is just one of the hassles of being a landlord and being in the rental business.

I hope this has been of some benefit to you, good luck.

"FIGHT ON"