My tenant has left the house without completing lease agreement period and I need to know his new address so I can submit a small claim . He owns 2 months of rent and property damage charges so I went head and fired a claim against them in the court but they need a present address (anywhere in the USA) so court can “serve” them for the hearing.
Can someone tell what if there are any third party services I can pay to retrieve the present address ?
1. Mail something to his old address marked 'Return Service Requested.' If he filed a USPS change of address, the post office returns it to you with his new address.
2. Go back to his rental application: employer, emergency contacts, references, vehicle info. In Texas a constable or private process server can serve him in person at his workplace, so a current employer can be as good as a home address.
3. Most private process servers offer skip tracing for a fee, and you'll need a server anyway, so bundle it.
Two things to handle before you file. Send your itemized deposit accounting within 30 days of move-out, even if he hasn't given a forwarding address, so the deposit doesn't become an issue in court. And Texas requires landlords to make reasonable efforts to re-rent, so keep records of your listing dates and showings. The court will usually limit unpaid rent to the period before a new tenant moved in or the date you reasonably could have re-rented.
One warning: be wary of anyone who DMs offering to 'recover' money for you. Stick with a licensed process server.