Q: This is a landlord-tenant question. Our tenant moved, and owes me several thousand dollars. How can I collect this debt?
My tenant was evicted through a successful forcible entry and detainer lawsuit, due to not paying rent. First, she ran up over $1,000 water bill, after she failed to tell me about a running toilet for 90+ days. She refused to even try to pay it back, when I asked her to (we had to pay it, because winter was settling in, and our pipes could have frozen, due to pipes bursting). Then, we served her with a 60-day Notice of Lease Non-Renewal (states that hold over rent is $200/day), which is why she stopped paying rent (in her mind, completely justifiable). She owes us $1300 in back rent. Additionally, she owes us $1,004 for legal fees, and then also $3800 for hold over rent - we had to turn away potential renters, and then also had to lower the rents we asked for July and August, due to her still being in our house, even after she'd been evicted. The sheriff could not come to enforce the eviction, due to being overbooked, but she still held over by 19 days.
A: You will need to sue her personally to recover the damages, although it may be difficult to recover based on the facts provided. In any event, I would recommend consulting with an attorney individually to discuss your options regarding filing a lawsuit and enforcing the judgment.
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