Evicted Tenant Owes Money

[wreese]

We recently evicted our tenant through the magistrate court in GA, she signed the court papers that she owed us the money and a schedule to pay us back. The first payment was due the day she was to move out. She left without paying us and didn't return any keys (house, trash and mailbox). Also, her boyfriend (who also was her employer for a bit) was acting as an "agent" for this. He was going to handle getting us the money owed.
Now either of them will call me back. I don't have her ss#, bank account nor new address. I think she has a new job in which she gets paid on a contractor basis.
The court gave us the right to garish wages or a bank account.
My question is this:
1 - What can I do to the boyfriend to get the information I need? She (I think) is basically doing the same type of work her boyfriend is, can I contact his customers in hopes of tracking her down? Can I show up at his doorstep since he did tell me to go through him for collection of the money?
2 - Since she is working like a contractor how can I garish wages since she doesn't have a employer?
3 - what is the best way to report her to credit agencies?

thanks for your help

 

[Gail_in_Georgia]

1. If you do, he'll likely try to get your arrested. And frankly, if I were his customers, I wouldn't give you...a total stranger...this information even if I knew it.

2. You won't be able to. Wage garnishment typically goes through a court order to the employer...which she doesn't have.

3. You'll need at least her social security number to do this. Next time get this information from applicants for your rentals. If an potential tenant refuses to put this information on your application, refuse to rent to them.

You've learned a hard lesson. Simply receiving a judgement in court is absolutely no guarantee you'll ever see a penny of this money.

I'm going through the same issue here in Georgia but because I had the tenants social security numbers, I was able to file a FiFA against them and go for garnishing the bank account of one of them (the other works in South Carolina which does not allow wage garnishment).
Gail

 

[wreese]

thanks for the reply.
I figured as much and I trying to think of any and everything to do here.
It ended up that the people who did the background check was able to give me the info so I do have her SS#. Can I use this to find a bank account? Also, the court mentioned about taking personal property. Can I take her car she is making payments?

 

[Gail_in_Georgia]

You might possibly be able to find the place she banks at. If so, you would need either her Social Security number (this is what most people have when they go after bank garnishment) or the bank account number to file through your local Magistrate/Civil Court office.

The personal property seizure is the FiFa (for Writ of Fieri Facias) which many folks use in Georgia (mainly because, amazingly, it usually is quite cheap to file a FiFa against someone and by the time one has paid the fees for the dispossessory affidavit, file a lawsuit, file for garnishment it's easy to wonder if throwing more money after a deadbeat tenant is worth it).

However, if she is still making payments on the car it is likely that she doesn't have the title to it and it is not part of her personal property.

Gail