All Forum Posts by: Jennifer Minge

Bill,

Sorry I was not clear on that point. I have already evicted him week before last. I do have judgment from the eviction. I am trying to execute on my judgment. As part of my execution I was trying to find out if I can garnish his student loan check since I did not know where he works currently and he does not have a bank account. Sorry for the confusion, my initial post must not have been clear enough. Thanks for the follow up.

Thanks everyone. Tenant does not bank with anyone as he typically visits the check cashing places and does money orders or cash. So I cannot garnish a bank account. He just started working full time somewhere but I don't know where. If I can find that out I will garnish wages. I do know he had a $1,300 student loan check at AIU and I wanted to know if I can go after that.

Is it possible to garnish a tenants student loan check?

Rent is due on 1st. Past due on 5th so starting on 6th there is a flat $70 late fee. If not paid by 7th I file eviction.

For exceptions, I still file eviction on the 7th and they can pay me anytime up until day before court day but amount must include rent, plus $70 late fee + $150 for dispo filing.

Let them realize that they can pay on 10th or 15th (common pay dates here) but it will cost them late fee and disp fee on top of rent amount. You will be amazed at how many tenants pay by 7th when they know it will cost them an extra $220 and after telling me they can't pay by 7th.

I just to be lenient but that dog doesn't fly. My lease says rent is due on 1st. They agree to this when they sign the lease. If they want to break their word and pay late, I am definitely going to keep my word and file dispo like my lease states.

If you allow your tenants to direct deposit. what do you do when you file eviction on them for non-payment? If you get eviction judgment for rent, late fee and court costs for filing dispo, the tenant then deposits something less than this total in your bank account then you are screwed since you accepted partial payment. In my state accepting partial payment voids the dispossary so you are now out the court costs that you cannot recover and you have to file dispo again for the balance of the money owed.

Contact the housing authority, they will have a form that will need to be filled out in case the property is sold or changes hands. You and the previous owner will need to sign this document. Get is signed at the closing table. Take signed document and voided check to the housing authority office the day of closing.

housing authority payments are made by direct deposit. Any change to the bank for direct deposit after the 15th will NOT be changed for the following month. You must submit form before 15th to get it changed to deposit into your account the following month. If you are closing on last day of month, make sure seller signs agreement that they will transfer money deposited into their account by xxx day of the month since direct deposit will be sent to them after the closing.

When take form into housing authority, ask to fill out form for direct deposit and attach your voided check to it.

while at housing authority get name and phone number of tenant's case manager. Any problems you call them. Case manager can verify the tenant's portion, if any, of the rent and how much housing authority pays. Case manager can also tell you when the next annual inspection will be held - actually the month not the actual day.

Get another letter signed by you and seller that you give to tenants telling them to send next month's rent to you not to the seller.

Section 8 is a good program because you get the rent direct deposited into your account the first of each month. But you do get bad tenants on this program. I have had several sec8 tenants that my partner and I have converted their names into verbs to represent very bad terrible thing.

A friend asked me this question and I told him my suggestion. Posting here to get everyone else's suggestion. Here is his question

This is a little strange and i need advise.
My renter always pays late, takes a couple phone calls and emails. The 10th or
so of June he says he will pay that week. I didn't hear from him after that.
Went to the house, asked the neighbor to call if he saw any life there. An hour
latter he calls and I went over there. The guys ex-wife was there and told me he
was killed in a motorcycle accident but she would pay June and July rent. --She
hasn't. She might and I hope so but can't trust her anymore, too long anyway, I
know, I know. So, my good friends, who can tell me just what and how I do this.
I don't have a clue where I start.

My initial response was to file eviction on the tenant and check the box that says "all other occupants". Start the eviction process to kick out the ex living there that is not on the lease.

Anybody have a different suggestion?

You should definitely consider pursuing prosecution against the parents to pay for the damages caused by the kids.

I would assume the potential renter decided not to rent due to all the police commotion. If so sue the parents for lost rent.

I run a quasi HOA group for quad owners in my area. Most of the quads are master metered for water. All owners have horror stories of getting $1k water bill one month.

We have talked to county water dept about getting meters for our units and then having pipes run to each individual unit. Well we have an impassee with people at water dept that want $2.5k for environmental study for water and another $2.5k for sewer etc. We argue this is not new construction so it is not required.

At our recent meeting we broached subject of creating our own utility company by creating an LLC that will install meters in each unit and bill the tenant.

Anybody got experience in doing this?

If you have credit cards and you pay them in full each month then you are shooting yourself in the foot. The credit card companies report your balance as $0 every month which shows no utilization so the formula used to calculate credit scores thinks you are not using credit.

Here are my recommendations:
1) buy something like $200. Pay 1/2 before bill is due and roll over $100 to the next month. Next month pay $100 to pay off. Now you have 2 months of credit reporting. Repeat this for 6 months because scores require min of 6 months of aging.
2) report balance each month on some credit cards. 35% of your score is based on utilzation. Paying in full is 0% utilization. You have 2 utilization scores. Your percentage for each card and then for all cards combined. If you have 5 cards with 10k limit and you have 10k charged on 2 of them, your overall utilization is 40% or 20k/50k. your utilization on 2 cards is 100% and 0% on 3 cards. Credit scores jump significantly run you are under 50% on both ratios, jumps again at 30% and really jumps when you hit <10%.
3) to improve utilization either decrease balances or increase credit limits. call companies and ask for credit limit increase.
4) don't have lots of inquiries. don't go hog wild and apply for many credit cards. inquiries last on your report for 2 years. too many and you get hit negatively.
5) crazy as this sounds an installment loan will improve your credit score while you are paying on it but when balance reaches $0 you credit score will drop. you no longer have that mix of credit in your calculation which is why it drops.
6) mortgages will improve your score. the calculation assumes anyone with paying mortgage gets bonus points so you score is greater than someone with everything else equal.
7) let your credit file age. You get bumps after aging 6 months and then at 1 year. Keep paying on your credit cards (assume you keep balance) and your score will increase over time
8) remove any incorrect information from your credit report.