Collecting from evicted tenants

[Chuy Gonzalez]

I've been fighting to get a dirty leach freeloader tenant out of one of my units. I went to court on March 7th. I won...I got rent and lawyers costs. This tenant has filed for bankruptcy. Bankruptcy was one of her diversionary tactics to get more free rent and delay her eviction. I finally got a writ to the sheriff and the sheriff has responded saying she will be locked out within 14 days.

The lawyer i used asked if i would like them to collect the money she owes me...I said...HUH...SHE DECLARED BANKRUPTCY??? They said it didn't matter...they charge nothing, but if they collect they want 40%...

Obviously i didn't ever expect to see any of the lost rent, so I am going to tell the lawyer to go for it...but am I missing something? I won't talk to the lawyer again in person until after the lockout..but I thought the bankruptcy meant I wouldn't ever see a dime...Anybody ever heard of this???

[Thomas S.]

As Kim mentioned the possibility of collecting is worth the time and effort to file. More importantly investors should view this as normal cost of doing business. Criminals should never be allowed to simply walk away scot free. The attitude of many investors is that the odds of collecting are low so let them go free to take advantage of their next landlord.

If every time a tenant like this was taken to court and perused for collection eventually they would be stopped. By not taking them to court for collections landlords are perpetuating the crime. This is a very important cost of doing business.