How to chase the dollars-please help

[bootylicious]

Hello,

We have a tenant who defaulted, and vacated, leaving a mess and no keys. The court hearing was last Friday, they found in our favour. After the bond is released, she will still owe us $1090. What do we do next?
We do have a PM, who we have very little faith in, so I'm hoping that you good people can give me some clues. We don't have a current address for her, but we do have her mothers address. She is not letting on that she knows her daughters whereabouts. The property is in Perth, we are in Brissie.
We have her name, DOB, centrelink no.
What is the correct way to go about tracking her down, and extracting $1000? And what is a better way?!!!

 

[Merovingian]

Hello,

We have a tenant who defaulted, and vacated, leaving a mess and no keys. The court hearing was last Friday, they found in our favour. After the bond is released, she will still owe us $1090. What do we do next?
We do have a PM, who we have very little faith in, so I'm hoping that you good people can give me some clues. We don't have a current address for her, but we do have her mothers address. She is not letting on that she knows her daughters whereabouts. The property is in Perth, we are in Brissie.
We have her name, DOB, centrelink no.
What is the correct way to go about tracking her down, and extracting $1000? And what is a better way?!!!

Perhaps the first step is to get a new property manager.

I don't know about the rest...

 

[crest133]

Hi Bootylicious
Refer to your tenancy application form and see what information you wish you had requested, and adjust your application form accordingly.


Tenant selection is the key.
Then PM selection.

Useless trying to extract money from assetless tenants.

It's time to fix your whole procedure :
PM must act immediately and forcefully with any arrears and on the first legal opportunity. Request the PM send you a written policy on how they act on arrears e.g. send letter or phone tenant day 3, repeat day 7, final warning day 10, termination notice day 15 ( or whenever the first legal opportunity is, according to the laws in your state.)
Tenants must be vetted carefully to ensure you get one with a verifiable good record from another agent ( rent record printout). Insist on waiting for a good tenant unles the property is in bad condition, in which case you'll only ever attract problem tenants.

Hope you find a good tenant

cheers
crest133

 

[slades]

Hi Bootylicious

I concur with previous suggestions to flick the pm, although I think even a good pm can get caught out and you could end up with a tenant who takes advantage of every liberty and then does a runner, owing you money anyway. I've had only two in nearly ten years of owning IP's and I consider myself pretty lucky and I found it much easier to just write the debt off to experience or bad luck and move on. Make sure the pm has them on the black list database, but I'm not too sure how effective that is, there are plenty of people doing private rentals who don't have access to it.

Even if you have accurate info on where the tenant currently resides, it can cost you much more than is owed and lots of heartache to try and recover the money, especially when it's interstate. If you want to teach the tenant a lesson and are happy to put some good money chasing bad then I'd suggest a search of this forum or others, for any articles on debt collectors or do a search of the yellow pages and find some heavies in Perth to follow it up. When it's hundreds of dollars, it's sometimes more cost effective to write it off, but if it's thousands then it might be a different story.

Cheers
Slades

 

[Simon]

Weigh up the effort of chasing the funds against the value of your time and the likelihood of getting anything from the tenant.

You may choose to make it a $1090 lesson and claim it against your tax.

I would counsel you to not get emotional about what this tenant did and see it as a business expense.

Cheers,

 

[HotRod]

How would you claim the $1090 (after recovery of bond monies) as a loss as you never had the money in the first place?

If you received the money you would pay tax on it, but not getting any (or only a portion) and making a loss on it? Not sure how this works.

Later...........

 

[Simon]

If her income is $1090 down on what it should be then this is the same as having the $1090 and claiming it.

It is the overall income that counts on the 30 Jun.

Cheers,

 

[HotRod]

I would have tought it easier to say if you never got it then you never had it.

Saying you can "claim" it confused the heck out of me. "Claim" against what?

Thanks.

Later..........

 

[Simon]

Of course you are right.

Sorry to confuse you.

Has the same effect tho!

Cheers,

 

[quoll]

G'day bootylicious

Do you have landlord insurance?

If so claim it.
If not get some.

How can you stop this happening in the future?
NAG NAG NAG NAG NAG, phone the PM, phone the PM, when the cash shows up in your bank account and it is less than it should be PHONE THE PM and NAG them. When the PM doesn't phone you and tell you what is going on, phone them, if you have to leave a message do so but phone them again that arvo or the next day, phone each day until you talk to them. They need to be sending the tenant nice letters that your rent is in arrears and if you do not pay we will take you to the tribunal. Make sure they do this.

I have a very average tenant who keeps getting behind in the rent, the PM sends them a letter, they catch up most of the time. A couple of times the PM has arrange tribunal hearings but the tenant has paid up the outstanding rent the day before the hearing.

The tenant is a high maintenance tenant and the PM has to earn her cash. I have to nag the PM every now and then.

It's not passive income.

But it's FUN

Cheers
quoll

 

[caramellokoala]

Hi there

Step 1. Get a new PM

Step 2. Purchase landlords insurance.

Step 3. You might want to investigate www.barclaymis.com.au and download the request to purchase form. Their contact number in WA is 08 9226 1155 ABN 41082879614 and in Qld 07 3390 6600 ABN 57074152211.

I have never used Barclays but they may be worth investigating.

Good luck

CK

 

[bootylicious]

Thanks for all the advice.
Has nobody tried the sheriff/bailiff approach? Or is it just not worth the time/effort/money?

No we did'nt have landlords insurance - yeah yeah I know.

The PM did send out letters, and made phone calls, and we did have one previous tribunal date, when she came in the day before, and paid up. But we have had to be constantly on the PMs back. She does not communicate with us at all. Didn't even give us a call to tell us the rent was behind, just let us get a shock when we got the monthly payment from her.

We are past the emotional stage. P***ed off, but becoming more philosophical with each day.

Anyway, thanks for the input.

 

[MasterInvestor]

Do you have a tribunal order that they owe you money?

Things vary from state to state, but in NSW if someone owes you money, you can go to the local court, and issue a claim form (called a statement of liquidated claim???). This is then served on the person. It can be sent via mail by the court or it can be served by the sherrif. But you must know where they live to serve it. You could have it served by mail, and post it to their last known address. If the letter is not returned to sender in 14 days, it is considered served

Once you have served it, then they have 30 days to respond. If they do not respond, you are able to obtain a default judgement.

Once you have a judgement you could send in the sherrif who can seize property/goods which can be sold. You can also get an order to garnish their wages, and an order for them to list all their financial details.

But, to do all of this you will need to know where they are living. That's the hard part. Do you or the agents have referees, parents names etc? this could lead you to them.

Possibly a good way to proceed is to get the default, and let it rest for a while. Their debt will acrue interest, and you can then chase them later when they are back on their feet and least expecting it.

You should be able to find more information on proceedures etc for your state by searching on google.

 

[stirling]

Initially,
It may be a good idea to get a parent or guarantor to cosign the lease form.
Someone that owns a house and can be tracked down when a default occurs. Someone to send the summons to. Especially those that give such glowing references for tenants. All signatories are liable for the full default.

 

[tonyd]

How can you stop this happening in the future?
NAG NAG NAG NAG NAG, phone the PM, phone the PM, when the cash shows up in your bank account and it is less than it should be PHONE THE PM and NAG them. When the PM doesn't phone you and tell you what is going on, phone them, if you have to leave a message do so but phone them again that arvo or the next day, phone each day until you talk to them. They need to be sending the tenant nice letters that your rent is in arrears and if you do not pay we will take you to the tribunal. Make sure they do this.

Sound like we all need a property manager manager!