Although I’m the park owner, Michigan law prohibits me from personally evicting a tenant because I hold the property in an LLC. So an attorney handled the matter and the tenant self-evicted the day prior to our court date. As a result, I have the property back and a money judgement for $2665.
In the two other instances where I have received a judgement, I turned the paperwork over to a collection service and after 8 months, have yet to recover dollar one. Is it impossible to recover money when the tenant essentially vanishes without a trace (disconnected cell phone, no forwarding address, quit their job, etc)? Does anyone have a suggestion as to how I might be more successful with this judgement?
Thanks in advance.
I am also in Michigan and had a similar case but the tenant sold the home to someone else (toter/rehabber?) who moved it out the next day. We could not stop this because the police told us to stand down and they would not allow us to prevent the “rightful” owner from removing their property, and we have no lease with them…so no rights to collect from new owner but of course old owner disappeared with the cash from the home sale. This is crazy.
In theory you could attach your judgement to property owned by your deadbeat (e.g., car, boat, house, bank account, etc) but you have to do the legwork to find out what they own and how to get a court to foreclose or “attach” your lien. In practice they won’t own any titled property and you’d be lucky if they have a bank account at all, and there won’t be any money in it, and if you seize it with a court order there won’t be more deposited, that’s for sure.
Your best case is to garnish wages if you know where they work. But it may be “get in line” if they even have a stable job (and you can discover what it is).
You will have little luck chasing deadbeats. Just shake it off and keep going. Try not to let the rent get too far behind was what our attorney said.
2 Likes
If you don’t want to deal with all the hassle why not sell the judgement to someone who specializes in the things Brandon mentioned? You might only get a fraction of its value but that’s better than what you’re getting now.
1 Like
It’s my understanding that these things usually work on commission.
Good input. I’m relatively new to the business (3 parks purchased over last 2 years), and it’s taken this long to realize that 75% of deadbeats are disguised as single Moms. It’s probably the most important - and difficult - lesson to learn. Especially for us nice guys.
Enjoy the weekend.