At our last place, oft wears hats and I were living with two other roommates. The system was that oft would front the money for rent and utilities (electric, water, gas, internet/TV), and the roommates would pay him back.
We’ve since moved out, and closed out the utilities and the last rent payment. oft also fronted the money to get the carpets steam-cleaned. One of the housemates has paid us back; we haven’t heard a peep out of the other. It’s been two weeks. What options do we have to get him to pay us back? He owes over $200, so it’s a fairly large chunk of money.
Small claims is typically the way, but since it’s like $60 to file it might not be worth it since you’re A)not going to recover the $60 and B)still have to prove everything to the judge to win the case. At worst you’re out another $60, at best you recover $140. What I might do is sue him for the total amount (including your his portion). It might get his attention and get him to mail you a check for his portion to call off the suit. The reason being (if asked) “this is what it cost me to close out the accounts, this is how much I had to pay when he absconded to make sure that all of our credit reports (including his) were left in good standing and that we didn’t get evicted.” If it all goes well, the judge will look at all the paperwork, do the math and make him pay his portion of the bills.
+1. Trust me on this. You might try one more time, and then just chalk it up to a life lesson. The next set of roommates you get will have stricter rules on bills, and it will be due to the previous asshole roommate.
I had roommates, on and off, for about 18 years, until the house was paid off in full. If you’re lucky enough to be at the end of your roommate cycle, full applause and salutations!
This exact thing happened to me years ago. My roomie came to stay for “months” but left in days. Owed me $70, hardly a princely sum. Wouldn’t take my calls at all. Wouldn’t respond to email. In short, incommunicado.
I was too careless at the time, being new to the whole business of sharing my apartment with another guy. I did not even take his new address. When he moved out, I had no way of reaching him. Fortunately, I remembered the name of the company he worked in. I called up their HR department, and they transferred my call straight to his desk.
I spoke to him politely, and said I would keep calling as a reminder until he pays up. Dude went home that day and transferred my money the same evening.
So:
Call him up and if he refuses to speak, go ahead and call his workplace.
Be polite - you want your money, not a confrontation.
Tell him in a friendly way you are just trying to remind him of his obligations.
Most people would just pay up at that point; no one wants word spreading around in his workplace.
If he still will not pay, forget it and move on. DO NOT threaten or try to talk to others in his workplace - that’ll pretty much set him on fire. And you’ll still not get your money back. IMO it is not worth doing something escalatory that might have serious consequences for him or you.
Now if it were $2000, I’d definitely pursue the claim in court (assuming I had some kind of a written agreement I could provide the court). Beyond this point I cannot say, IANAL.
Yeah, you could probably get the filing fee back too, but even if you win in small claims court, that doesn’t mean you automatically get the money. If he doesn’t pay it voluntarily you can go for wage garnishment or a lien on his property or something but there are probably fees for that too, plus it just wouldn’t be worth it for $200.
I went to roomie’s new pad. I looked in the window and saw him asleep. I knocked, nothing happened, I looked again and he was gone. I knew he was hiding, the bastard, so I cracked open the front door and took his purebred dog by the collar and said “ED, I’M GOING TO SEIZE YOUR DOG.” He came out and wrote a check. When the check bounced, I called his mom. Her check was good.
If you do end up deciding that writing off the ex-roommate is the way to go, then it would be very cool of you and the other ex-roommie split the $200 with oft and each give him $66.
How so? The OP os not a debt collector under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. He/She is the debt owner and, as such, has far more options to collect. From the Federal Reservepage (PDF):
If they farm the debt out to a third party to collect, that party would not be permitted to call the debtor at work.
You’re quoting Federal law. State laws can be significantly more stringent, and can indeed apply to original creditors. See, e.g.,Fl. St. 559.55 *et seq.*. As I said, it depends on the state.
