Finding the current address of a previous tenant?

Question

Hey all,

Anyway to find the current address of an evicted tenant without resorting to collections agencies? They owe me several months worth of back rent and even fooled the court during the hearing by providing the address of my property where they were previously living. I want to avoid handing the case over to collections due to the high fees and cut they would be taking upon receiving the funds. Any suggestions?

Thanks!

Jeff Copeland · Answer

A skip tracer and/or private investigator handles these types of requests.

Though I'm curious what you intend to do with the address if you're not referring them to collections.

A word of warning about trying to collect your own debts: You become a debt collector yourself and you are subject to consumer debt collection practices laws in most states (and I believe there is a corresponding federal law).

I was sued once because a tenant invited me (in writing, via text) to her workplace (citing transportation issues) to pick up a rent check. She didn't even have the rent check, and she then sued me for unfair debt collection practices for coming to her workplace!

The case was completely frivolous and went nowhere (in fact, my E&O insurance carrier countersued the tenant for the legal fees and she ended up with a new collection on her record).

But it still cost me $10,000 (my E&O deductible) in legal fees, and probably a hundred hours of wasted time.

Nathan Gesner · Answer

You can hire a skip tracer, but locating them is the easy part. Actually collecting money from them is the difficult part.

Collection agencies charge high fees because it's not easy to collect money and they need to get paid for what they do.

Akshay Vig · Answer

Yes, so I've heard! Going to go the skip tracing route but keep collections agencies open if the need arises.

Akshay Vig · Answer

Skip tracing did not even cross my mind, thanks Jeff! My attorney who represented me for the court case against the tenant had informed me that we needed their current address before we can proceed to collecting the debt. With heir address, he will be able to serve them and get them to come into his office to obtain further information from them (i.e banking information, current employment, etc). As we were granted a money judgment from the court, we can then proceed to garnishing their wages or obtaining funds from their bank.

But thanks for the heads up by sharing your story! Definitely need to be careful while going about this to not end up with any more legal fees!