We’re only talking about tenants who bail, before you evict. I call this a blessing, not an opportunity to sue. It cost nothing to get a non-payer out in this case. Celebrate your fortune.
Chasing skips isn’t good business, and is the same thing as chasing dimes with dollars.
It’s gonna cost you roughly $350 to file in small claims, and then you have to actually prove a loss in rents.
Assuming you could prove two months worth of lost rents or $1,200, and it cost you all of the tenant’s deposit to make the unit marketable, you’re only out two month’s rent. No judge will give you more than your actual losses.
Assuming you win a $1,200 judgment, plus $350 court costs, or $1,550, and both aren’t a guarantee, you subsequently attempt recover those monies.
Depending on the documentation you have, how easy it is for the collection agency to find and track this person, exercise the judgment against him, and ultimately collect after months and months, the collection agency might give you One hundred and fifty bucks for the face value of your your judgment. Never mind you spent $350 in small claims. Too bad, so sad, your dad.
Or you could pay the collection agency $55 to put the judgment to collection, and you ding the debtor’s credit for three years, and then you both wait for it fall off his report.
Meantime, you’re still out $350, plus $55, or $405, plus the lost rents of $1,200, or a total of $1,605, and the debtor remains effectively judgment proof.
But …you feel good that you spent over four hundred extra dollars dinging a deadbeat’s credit report. Yay for you.
Okay, I’m out of gas on this topic. You do what you think you need to, but I don’t chase skips. I used to, until I counted the actual return on my money, and it was a bad investment.
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