I’ve recently evicted a tenant from one of my Units in NC. The local custom (as I understand it) is that if the tenant shows up for the eviction hearing, a money judgment will be awarded to the plaintiff. If the tenant does not show up, plaintiff gets possession but no money judgment.
Question: Must I have a money judgment in order to report to the credit bureau for bad debt against this tenant? If not, where do I start for reporting bad debt to credit bureaus? If a judgment is required, why? This doesn’t seem fair to the landlord to not be able to attach to credit.