Posts Tagged Collections

TENANT MOVED OUT AND LEFT YOU HOLDING THE BAG!

Nov 24

Posted by Tristan R. Pettit, Esq. in Collections | 1 Comment

With a short week ahead of us due to the Thanksgiving  holiday, and the fact that I will be traveling to the wonderful land of flat terrain and tons of wind (a.k.a Kansas), I thought I would take this opportunity to re-post some very good advice from a friend of mine and fellow blogger, Bill Gray of Rent Recovery Services, who is also known as The Landlord Doctor.  http://www.TheLanlordDoctor.com

Bill writes a blog that focuses on collection issues, and specifically collection issues related to past tenants.  He also serves as the regional manager for a great collection service called Rent Recovery Service which I wrote about in a prior blog.  Bill has some very good advice to share and I especially enjoyed his blog post entitled:

TENANT MOVED OUT – LEFT YOU HOLDING THE BAG. 

Perhaps your tenant lied and took advantage of you.  He may have skipped out on the lease or you may have evicted him.  In either case, he damaged your rental and cost you money!  What do you do now?

1.  First, set your emotions aside and spend some time organizing your ex-tenant’s file.  Whether you own one unit or one thousand, or whether you manage your rentals full-time or part-time, you are running a business.  Any successful business keeps well organized, complete records. Read the rest of this entry »

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SUING AN EX-TENANT FOR PAST DUE RENT: What Factors To Consider

Aug 31

Posted by Tristan R. Pettit, Esq. in Collections, Credit Checks, Rental Documents, Tenant Damage | 8 Comments

Your tenant has already vacated your rental unit – so there is no need to file an eviction action — but they left owing you money.  Is it worth your time and effort to sue them in order to obtain a money judgment?  This is probably the third most frequently asked question that I receive when talking to landlords (the first two most asked questions in case you are curious are (1) which notice do I use when? and (2) how do I evict my tenant?).

There is not a simple answer to this question.  It depends . . . on many things.  Many variables need to be taken into consideration before deciding to spend the time and effort to sue an ex-tenant.  Let’s consider what some of those variables are. Read the rest of this entry »

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Worthless Check Diversion Program: An Opportunity To Collect On “Bad Checks”

Aug 5

Posted by Tristan R. Pettit, Esq. in Bad/Bounced Checks, Collections | No Comments

The Miwaukee County District Attorneys Office has adopted a new program that will hopefully allow landlords to collect on bad checks that were passed by their tenants.  The goal of the program is to get the bad-check writers to pay back the money owed in exchange for not being charged with a crime or referred to collections.

This program, entitled the Worthless Check Diversion Program, is a positive step for landlords because currently the Milwaukee Police Department will not prosecute tenants that write bad rent checks.  See my earlier blog post on this topic entitled “Passing of Worthless Checks Will Not Be Prosecuted in City of Milwaukee.”  Read the rest of this entry »

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A NEW COLLECTIONS TOOL FOR LANDLORDS IS AVAILABLE

May 1

Posted by Tristan R. Pettit, Esq. in Collections | 3 Comments

The Apartment Association of Southeastern Wisconsin has recently entered into a contract with Rent Recovery Service so that AASEW members can receive a discount on this new collection tool for landlords.

You can access Rent Recovery Services from the AASEW website at http://www.apartmentassoc.org/.  After providing Rent Recovery Service with the necessary information about your ex-tenant, RRS will send a letter to the debtor advising them of the debt.  If the ex-tenant has not [...]

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