The tenant is out (under court order) but left no information about how to contact them. The intention is to sue for back rent ($10,000) but, obviously, they have to be served/notified. If we simply send notification via certified mail to the rental property and they haven’t left a forwarding address with the post office, have we met our burden and will we then win by default? These were “professional tenants”. The tables have turned and we intend to make their lives as miserable as they made ours. Reporting them to the credit bureaus is on the list of things to do. Maybe we can save some future landlord grief. This is in New Jersey , BTW.
They were ordered by a court to leave (and did so) but did the court order include any provisions regarding their overdue past rent?
If the reason they were evicted was over failure to pay rent, then I’d imagine that would have been, yanno, mentioned in the eviction notice. (If the eviction was for a different reason, and the overdue rent is now something of an afterthought, then of course please disregard.)
Can you clarify what this means?
It refers to a particular type of deadbeat who rents properties, usually with fake background information, with the intention of paying little or no rent while living there as long as possible by exploiting legal protections under landlord-tenant laws.
If there’s been a court order and eviction already, and you’re contemplating a lawsuit, then … at some point, wasn’t an attorney involved (representing your side of the matter) and if so, would their firm also be involved in serving the actual suit?
I’d hope most attorneys would know the procedures in place for what - unfortunately - is likely not an uncommon occurrence.
To clarify a bit I am not the landlord. My stepson is but his mother and I are his property manager as he lives a fair distance away. He did have a lawyer who was dealing with the actual court appearances, letter sending, etc. He was O.K. but not great. He was willing to make compromises with the tenant (who claimed to have a lawyer but one never showed up). It took the real estate agent to force the issue and tell him “No. This has been going in for three years with two other deals sabotaged by the tenant. No compromises.”
The tenant was not evicted for failure to pay rent, although that was in the works. If I have the terminology correct, this was an order of possession. The house was being sold and the tenant given the requisite 60 notice to vacate. They refused. There was a hearing and the judge gave them (her, really) three days to vacate. At this point she says “I moved out yesterday but have some belongings still there.” “You have until Wednesday at noon but the landlord has possession immediately”" says the judge. She told the judge that she talked to the buyer and her was going to allow her to stay another month. The judge didn’t want to hear it and a later phone call to the buyer confirmed that she was making it up. Unfortunately, there were no details discussed as to how this would happen. Locks were changed and, after two separate break in attempts, she finally got her crap out over the course of two days with us present. She had the nerve to tell the stepson via text “I need three more hours tomorrow” as she was removing stuff on the first day. Of course, he let us know and I said to her. “12 o’clock” after that I will haul it away." She had the stuff gone by noon.
She was never “evicted”, technically, as far as I know and will not appear in any database as such. Since she is now gone, the eviction case is over and a law suit is the only option. I have some time on my hands, the court is nearby and I figure “Why pay a lawyer if the case is winnable with a summary judgement due to the tenant not responding”?
Regarding the term “professional tenant”- they know and use the law to their advantage. For example, twice before they had the tenant in court for eviction proceedings (rent was 3-4 months late) and both times she came in at 3:45 on the last day and paid the rent. Then, then non-payment started over again. New Jersey gives tenants a lot of rights. Its absurd the hoops a landlord has to jump through.
There is much more about her behavior that I won’t get into unless asked but, like I implied, paybacks are a bitch and its payback time.
IANAL:
This may well differ by state but it is possible to serve notice via publication if the person is hiding from you. You’ll need a lawyer (or process server) to sort this out in your state to be sure it is all done properly:
HOW TO SERVE LEGAL PAPERS BY PUBLICATION IN ILLINOIS
If the defendant is hiding from service, has left the state, or his or her residence cannot be ascertained despite diligent attempts to do so, the county clerk can publish a notice in a newspaper in the county where the legal action is pending upon the plaintiff’s request and affidavit. If there is no published newspaper in the county, the publication can be in a newspaper in an adjoining county. The notice must include the court’s title, the case title, the names of the parties, the case number, the names of the parties being served via publication, and the date when default will be entered if there is no answer. The county clerk provides a copy of the publication by mail to the defendant’s last known address. Service by publication requires the notice to be made at least once a week for three successive weeks. - SOURCE
I presume you have a small claims judgement against her, or is this the first step you in the process of doing?
Do you have any clue whatsoever where to find her? Did she give references when first moving in? Did she leave any hints about where he family is? Where she works? What did she use to move - moving service? Where she gets he automobile insurance? Her bank - presuming she tried using cheues at one point? (Did she even mention the name of the lawyer she allegedly had?) Any clues from previous places of residence?
Yeah, we ran into a couple of them. They were also “professional car buyers/thieves”. She worked for a tow truck company that would give her great references. They would buy a nice car with a bounced check and drive it until repoed.
There is a reason why a lot of people I know who rent properties only do so in Pennsylvania and not NJ. Unless you have some cushion or a lot of properties only one bad tenant can ruin you.
I remember when I was reading about the Ontario housing market years ago - the website I was reading eventually degenrated into a landlord bitch session. The Ontario Landlord-Tenant Act and the tribunals involved gave far too much leeway to renters, and there were plenty of stories of tenants who exploited that to the fullest. Any eviction started with a hearing, some tenants excelled at getting last-minute extensions, and presented all sorts of hard lck stories, claims that the landlord misrepresented the facts of their case, partial payments, etc. You couldn’t start a case unless the tenant was well behind on rent. Even then, once it got to hearings it could take 6 months or more for an eviction order, which then had to go to court to be acted on with the delay that involved. Some tenants wheedled a year or more out of a landlord with no intention to ever pay.
The general consensus was that there was no place in Toronto for a small landlord. The government’s deck was totally stacked against them.
This is true in many jurisdictions, and only got worse during Covid. I don’t want to skate too close to a political statement in FQ, but it seems to me that when it is generally accepted that “housing is a right” then landlords end up with very little room to maneuver.
Trouble is, landlords fare badly when it comes to public esteem, including in popular songs.
You know, the landlord rang my front door bell–
I let it ring for a long, long spell–
I looked through the window, i peeked through the blind,
And asked him to tell me what was on his mind.
He said, “money, honey!”
- Clyde McPhatter
So I go in my room, pack up my things and I go
I slip on out the back door and down the streets I go
She a-howlin’ about the front rent, she’ll be lucky to get any back rent
She ain’t gonna get none of it
- George Thorogood & The Destroyers
But, legally, housing is not a right and landlords wield significantly more power than their tenants do.
That’s why legal protections exist for tenants.
Yes, some tenants have become expert at using the system against their landlord. But, it is much more common for the landlord to wreck the tenant.
I don’t think that is a political statement but reality. I owned a tax lien and after 3 years paid for the treasurer’s deed. The county refused to issue one (after I paid their property taxes for 3 years and the $500 for the deed) stating that they were not going to take someone’s house away from them and leave them homeless. Not the same but similar.
It seems like that would depend on what your areas rules of civil procedure or appropriate property statutes have to say about what constitutes proper service.
Since this involves a real world legal issue, let’s move this to IMHO (from FQ)
Honestly, I think it depends on where you live. I think in the SF Bay Area, tenants have a lot more legal leverage than they might in other areas.
I’m not a lawyer, but I think that would technically count as an eviction for cause, on grounds that the property is being converted to fee simple. N.J. Stat. Ann. § 2A:18-61.1 (l)(1). Even if it was eviction for nonpayment of rent, you would still have to file a separate suit for back rent.
You can’t service a vacated property by certified mail. Nobody is there to sign. The rules in New Jersey provide that the court sends a certified mail with return receipt. If it comes back, you have to pay a re-service fee and if you want to send it to the same address again, you need to prove the defendant receives mail at that address. N.J. Ct. R. 6:2-3 (d). The special claims court has an information packet,
STEP 3: Be sure that the Papers can get to the Defendant.
It is very important that you provide the court with the defendant’s correct address. After you
file your papers with the court, the court will mail or deliver the papers to the defendant using
the address you gave the court. If the address is correct and the defendant is served with the
papers and answers the complaint, then the court will notify both sides of a trial date. The court
will notify you if the defendant cannot be found at the address you provided. You must then
provide the court with another address and pay a re-service fee within 60 days of the date you
filed the complaint, or the case will be dismissed. It will be reinstated automatically if you can
provide a valid address within one year.
Bottom line, even if you won judgement you couldn’t enforce it without knowing where the defendant is. So either call up your references, or consider hiring a private investigator.
~Max
A rich landlord with many properties or a large property management company weild a lot of power. An owner with one or two properties can be wrecked by one bad tenant in a state like NJ where the eviction process can take many months.
That’s a great link Max. Thanks. However, it appears that it is incumbent on the plaintiff to locate the defendant. If the defendant choses to hide, why should they benefit from that? I assume that the USPS will not send a certified letter to a forwarding address if by chance, the tenant filed one with them. I contact the postmaster and find out. I’ll also call the court to get a straight answer from them about default judgements.
I’m a retired detective and know how to track someone down with the tools available to law enforcement (subpoenas etc.) but in the civilian world, I have no experience. Maybe I’ll just wait a bit until the tenant is likely settled in and start with a “pay for” internet search. She has no social media presence that I can find but I haven’t dug too far, yet. I wouldn’t expect her references to give her up, even if they knew but it couldn’t hurt to contact them. "Hey! Your friend won the PCH sweepstakes but we want to surprise her at home. Any idea where she is?