How does one put a lien on a past tenant?

[Troy F.]

Hello,

Looking for advice on how to put a lien on a past tenant.  I'll save the details as to why I think it is necessary to put a lien on this tenant. To summarize I think not putting a lien on them will encourage them to continue on the path they are on. I'm hoping by putting a lien on them they will learn to change their ways before they get into bigger problems in life. Has anyone put a lien on a tenant before? What steps did you take? If the amount owed is less than $1,000 is it worth the hassle?

Thanks!

[Greg Scott]

We've gone through this process, sadly, hundreds of times.  I may be a bit more jaded because of it.  Seems to me there is a portion of the population that simply doesn't care if they don't pay their debts.  They only do what they are forced to do.  Our motivation for us to do this is that the debt gets on their credit and if later in life they want to finance a new car or buy a house in that state, they will have to pay off their debt.  Sometimes we can get wage garnishment too.  By the time we evict, we usually have balances-due around $4,000, sometimes more, depending on circumstances.

Steps:

1) Go to Small Claims Court (in most leases filing fees and attorney fees can be added to the debt owed by the tenant)  Bring all your tenant-related paperwork showing what they owe you.

2) Get a money judgment from the Court

3) Hand that money judgment off to a collections agency that will go try to collect

Is it worth it?  That is up for you to decide.  I would say that less than $1,000, it is probably not financially prudent for you. Remember, you will have to up-front pay for the court costs, and when you hand it off to a collection agency, they keep half of everything they collect.  Your odds of collecting anything from this person in the future are probably around 10-20%.