I'm thinking about going. One of my renters totally trashed my rental property. I want to sue him, garnish his wages and make his life a living hell!! Is going to small claims court a pain in the ***? What are my chances of winning? HELP!
I'm thinking about going. One of my renters totally trashed my rental property. I want to sue him, garnish his wages and make his life a living hell!! Is going to small claims court a pain in the ***? What are my chances of winning? HELP!
THANK GOD I'M A SOONER!
NO! But from what I understand the business owner usually loses because you REALLY have to prove that there was wrong doing!
Document & Photo EVERYTHING!!!!
Its cheap and easy! You'll be lucky if they even show up!
It's pretty easy and painless.
As thunder pointed out, bring photos of the place trashed out-or at least receipts from the cleaning crew putting it back together again. Make sure that you have a copy of the lease where it shows that all damage is the responsibility of the tenant, and the pre-move-in inspection sheet.
It'll probably be a pain in the butt to collect though. I don't think that OK allows garnishment of wages, and the dude probably doesn't have a whole lot in the bank to execute on. Basically, you'll just mess up his credit until he pays you.
its not worth the effort-just hire somebody to rough them up or make them disappear like soonerwill did
Wapner is on ....gotta watch Wapner...
They might try to get ya to go through mediation first
I think the most I can sue for here in Oklahoma is $4500. I came up with about $9000 just off the top of my head. If I wanted them roughed up I'd do it myself. Why pay someone when I could have the pleasure of doing it myself? Only I'd get caught and thrown in jail. The guy has to have good credit, he just bought a house. I want him to be paying me until the day he dies.
THANK GOD I'M A SOONER!
Oh, cool. You've got a good one, now. If you get a judgement, you can get a mechanic's lein on the house. If he ever sells the place, he's got to pay you off.
Go over there and trash his house and call it even.
Can't you take him to a court that enforces judgements over 4500? I mean, why let him slide for half of what he screwed up?
SiF-you kinda need an attorney in big boys court.
I sued a dry cleaneers one time, it was fairly simple. The ruined a $300 dollars suit of mine and I took them to court. I won, then the dry cleaners went out of business so I never collected a dime. If you want to go to small claims court to represent yourself that is good but why settle for half the damages? Couldnt you just add the cost of an attorney into your dmages and let them handle it that way you can sue for the total amount?
The $9000 I came up with is if someone else does all the labor. I usually do my own labor. If I get a lawyer I have to pay him. If the guy never pays me I'll be out the money for a lawyer. As far as a mechanic's lean goes I could only do that if I performed work on the new house he bought. I can't trash his house because I don't know exactly where he moved. Besides, the probably trashed it already. They've been there almost a week! I've seen a lot of rent house look pretty bad after someone moved out but this is the worst by far. Some examples of things they tore up or are missing are:
Missing:
front and rear storm doors.
2 closet doors
1 bedroom door
3 globes off light fixtures
toilet tank lid
numerous switch plates
Ruined:
all 14 mini blinds
stove
refrigirator
back door
5 broken window
every window screen
garage door torn off
22, yes 22 holes in the walls, ranging from baseball to beachball size
hardwood floor ruined not even resandable
all carpet
kitchen countertop
bathtub
bath sink
20' section of chainlink fence
25' section of chainlink fence
chainlink gate
and much, much more!
There are at least two 16' trailer loads of trash in the yard and interior.
Infested with mice and roaches
You have to wear a mask just to go inside. It smells like a combination of dog/cat urine/feces, dirty laundry, rotting food, roach crap, mouse crap, cigarettes.
I've taken plenty of pics and the fun is about to begin.
How can I post the pics here? I'd like to put them on a site along with his name, phone number, new address etc. But I doubt he'd really care.
THANK GOD I'M A SOONER!
I would take him to court.
If you really want to find out where he is living now shoot me an email at [email protected] and I will find his new address for you. That will be handy if you need to serve him papers, etc...
Thanks Wahoo. I need to go through my papers and get his SS# and that stuff. I don't think he is actually married and most of the stuff might be in her name. But I do know where he works. If I have to I'll follow him home. I always wanted to see what is was like to be a stalker! If that doesn't work I'll email you.
THANK GOD I'M A SOONER!
man this is getting good.
This could rival BSG's lazy neighbor very quickly.
I taste terrific.
I don't mean to be a smart ***, but don't you ever check up on your rental houses? I doubt all that damage was done on the last day of his lease.
Penguin is right. You should let renters know up front that you'll be stopping by each month to replace the filters on the ac/furnace. Not only does it insure that the filters get replaced and prolong the life of the units, it gives you an opportunity to check out what's going on with your properties. If you are an out of town owner, pay a real estate firm to manage the property.
Good Luck.
I dunno, man.Originally Posted by Soonerfan85
I've been a renter, and now we rent out our old house. While I can see where you're coming from, I don't like the idea of going into the place once a month -- because I feel like they should have that space to themselves, y'know? If I've got reason to suspect they're damaging the place I can go in whenever I want... But I remember as a renter that weird feeling of not belonging... Any time the landlord showed up, it only made the feeling worse.
It's a thorny issue, for sure. And you've got to find a way to keep some tabs on your property. Me, I figure I'm fairly safe because we tend to drive past the old house fairly often (we've got family in the area) so we get a good look at the outside, and our pest contract means the exterminator crawls around it every four months or so. Even if he doesn't go inside, he'd notice if things were *really* bad.
I assume you've seen Pacific Heights? The number the dude did to your property reminds me a *lot* of the movie.
Document the heck out of it. It's sounding like it might be a job for "real" court -- although as you said, there's lots of reasons why real court could prove prohibitively expensive. Do you know how to get in touch with your last renters prior to the *********? If you could get a sworn statement from 'em saying (basically) that the house was livable when they moved out, it might help your case...
G'luck with that guy -- hope you hang him out to dry.
POST THE PICS!!!! I want to see what this mother did to you!
I was affraid it was going to be someone doing some minor stuff to the house but this sounds like a full-blown rage party or something. Did they not like you? Did you have a confrontation before?
I would follow him home from work to see where the bastard lives!
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