I recently evicted a bad tenant and need to collect rent and damages from him. How do I get him to pay?
If you completed an eviction action through the court system whereby the judge terminated the tenancy, in most courts of jurisdiction you should have been able to include a money judgment for unpaid rent and damages along with the judgment for eviction. If your eviction judgment included a money judgment, you can go ahead with collection of the judgment. If you didn’t obtain a money judgment along with the eviction judgment, you will have to file a separate lawsuit for the money owed to you and begin collection efforts after obtaining the judgment.
As a judgment creditor, it is your responsibility to collect your court awarded judgment and to do so in a legally compliant manner. There are several different collection options available to judgment creditors. You may decide to hire an attorney, contract with a collection agency, or collect the debt yourself.
Your strategy will depend upon a number of factors such as: the amount of judgment, the debtor’s assets and income, the cost of collection, the amount of time and energy you are willing to commit, and extenuating factors such as the debtor filing bankruptcy. You will need to take into account the time and energy necessary to locate your debtor, the debtor’s assets and prepare and implement a strategy to collect your money.
The first thing you should do in your efforts to collect your judgment is to make a list of everything you know about your debtor. The amount of information you are able to list is a good indication of how hard it might be to collect your judgment. The more information you know about the debtor, such as place of residence, employment status, and financial condition, will help you in preparing your collection strategy.
The most basic collection strategy is to ask the debtor for your money. A formal demand for payment, written in a businesslike manner, with full details of the judgment award, may motivate the debtor to pay the debt. Reminding the debtor that an unpaid money judgment stays on the debtor’s consumer credit report as a negative item until the debt is satisfied may also provide incentive for payment.