Tenant Fraud - "re-lease"

[yokozuna]

Regarding a condo unit in Atlanta, Fulton County:

Our tenant signed a lease that contained a clause that required notification in the event he desired to sublease the unit. Approximately 3 months after he signed his lease, he entered into a new lease with another person, claiming the unit to be his. He charged this person more than he was paying us in rent. We were not aware of this second lease; we are located outside of Georgia.

4 months after this occurred, our original tenant stopped paying rent. After the second month of missed rent and unfulfilled promises to pay, we sent an agent to the unit for an inspection. Upon arriving at the building, he was informed that the original tenant hadn't been living in the unit for some time, and that the new tenant was not there.

Several phone calls later, it became clear that the new tenant was misled into believing that the unit belonged to the original tenant.

We informed him that he breached the terms of his lease and re-leased the unit. The original tenant then sent a notarized promissory note to us in the amount of the missing rent, not including late fees as described in the lease or any overage he was charging the second renter.

Further, the original renter established a Georgia LLC with this address as the primary place of business, despite not residing in the unit.

We want to file charges against the original renter and obtain a judgment for the amount in the promissory note plus damages. What is our legal standing here?

 

[Gail_in_Georgia]

Georgia allows such claims to be heard in Civil/Magistrates Court (our version of Small Claims) for damages up to $15,000. An attorney is not required, although one can certain hire one to represent them if they wish.

Do you have the original tenants current address so that he can be served?

Gail

 

[yokozuna]

I have addresses that he's left as remnants of previous business ventures (which are all residential and in the Atlanta area). I am not certain if any of them are good.

I was under the impression that the promissory note he delivered in conjunction with a criminal complaint would be sufficient to issue a summary judgment. The note was notarized, so the notary should have taken some form of ID, correct? How can I go about requesting that information?

Thanks!

 

[Gail_in_Georgia]

Yes; the promissory note is certainly good evidence that can be presented to a judge in the case of a lawsuit.

As with all lawsuits, the parties involved have the right to be notified that legal action is being taken against them. In rental situations, this often gets stymied as the old tenant has moved on and (of course) left no forwarding address.

Please keep in mind that, depressingly enough, getting a judgement (or a promissory note) is no guarantee one will see a penny of this money. However, getting a judgement does open the door to being able to garnish wages (IF they work in a state that allows garnishment of such) and (if one knows the bank account numbers), garnishment of bank accounts.

Gail

 

[jharris352]

I'm sorry this conman did this to you, but his unmitigated gall is laughable. Me personally I would send him a letter as if I was going to pay him off because I was "afraid" of him. He sounds arrogant enough to respond and let you know where he is. As soon as he did I would file a warrant application for fraud and sue him at the same time. Get him. Unfortunately Gail is right, collecting from this con is probably not going to be fun. I personally would file in Superior Court for various reasons including the chance of suing for punitive damages because he obviously pulls this fraud for a living. Good luck.