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I evicted my tenants last year for nonpayment of rent and subsequently took them to small claims court for what they owed. I was awarded a judgment for the full amount, and proceeded to enlist the help of the court in order to garnish my tenant's wages (the easiest option I seemed to have at the time). At this point I've hit a snag though, as I was told by the court officer that his place of employment needed his social security number (which I don't have) in order to process the garnishment.
Has anyone out there successfully collected on a small claims court debt before? Did you have the social security number of the person you sued? It didn't seem like that was something that was necessary throughout this process as the courts provide documents which are very explicit in this regard along the way.
This is called an "information subpoena" and you can send one to the judgment debtor without a court order. The form referenced in R. 6:7-2(b) is found in the NJ court appendix here:
You would send your former tenant an original and one copy of the above form to complete, along with a pre-paid self-addressees stamped envelope to return to you. As you can see, the form has a spot for your former tenant to enter his or her SS number. If you do not receive a response within 21 days, you can send a similar form to the employer.
Of course, you should not consider this post or any internet post as legal advice. Good luck with your collection efforts.
Hi Coco-Law. Thanks so much for taking the time to reply.
I actually already sent them the subpoena you described. Unfortunately, I received them back (return-to-sender) as they had already moved out. As you can imagine, neither of them elected to give me their new addresses upon my request. I did this more just to cover my bases; I had little hope that they'd be compliant after already being evicted. It was after the subpoena issuance that I went ahead with the wage garnishment. Their employers was the only piece of information I actually had about them. The tenant whose wages I am attempting to garnish paid me either in cash or via deposit to my bank, so I didn't have any of his banking information. I don't know if I could serve their employer a subpoena, or really how to move forward getting the information I need after failing in my original subpoena attempt.
Just for some background, these were tenants who were already living in the house when I purchased, so I didn't have the opportunity to do my due diligence prior to the initiation of our landlord-tenant relationship. Honestly, requesting a prospective tenant's social security number is something I never would have even considered prior to going through all of this anyway.
This can't help you now, but in the future request a prospective tenants SSN and a copy of their driver license for a background check. (you don't have to run the check but then you have it for the future). I rent a room in my home, I request that from everyone. People who get balky I just tell them, I'm going out and leaving a relative stranger in my home. If they don't want to give it to me, they don't get it.
I think you need an SSN for a check on some one through Checkmates.com or similar sites. I have a retired law enforcement friend who does it for me.
So many forms ask for an SSN, if you go to a new doctors office their form asks for it. I don't feel they need it, they don't use SSN for medical benefits cards because of fear of identity theft. I'm not going to give a Drs. office my number and have them forget their laptop in a cab someplace. If a landlord requested it I would give it to them.
Hi Blue biker. Thanks so much for your input. Your advice is definitely spot on, and that's a step I actually do with my new tenants. I have all my current tenants SSN's. I do feel a little badly about asking; I wouldn't want to give mine if the situation was reversed. But honestly, after dealing with all of this, I don't see any other option.
What I'm having trouble getting past is the fact that it seems like there's NO way to actually collect on a judgement without having the other party's SSN, bank account number, or something similarly private/difficult to get. How many people have that kind of information about ANYONE else? It seems like a major flaw in our justice system.
In addition to wage garnishment, with a valid court judgment you can also seize bank accounts, put liens on real assets (houses, cars), etc. Some localities will issue an arrest warrant with a judgment (ask the sheriff in the deadbeats' jurisdiction).
Depending on what's owed, it may be more trouble (and cost) than it is worth. What about a collection agency? They may take part of the money but they'd harass the debtor so they might give up and pay?
Thanks, westender and Blue Biker, for your replies.
The problem with the bank account route (which otherwise would have been a good option) is that I don't have them. They always paid in cash or made a deposit to my bank to pay rent. An arrest warrant is something I was unaware of, but I doubt my municipality (Hudson County) does it; I've already done research on it and I never saw that option. I will definitely investigate further though, so thanks for the suggestion.
The reason I don't want to go through a collection agency is two-fold: first, from what I understand, the collection agency takes a large portion of the debt, which, I simply don't want to give up. I don't know how large, but this just scares me as I need the money. Second, I'm planning on being a landlord for the long-haul, so ultimately, it's going to be to my benefit to find out what it takes to complete this process. I expect that at some point I'll have to go after another tenant, so having done the entire process (hopefully) successfully once will make it easier subsequent times.
It sounds like you have learned some valuable lessons about being a landlord. It also sounds like you are reaching the end of the road as far as free resources that you have at your disposal. So now you need to spend money to get your money. If all you need is a SSN and you have a subpoena and a valid reason to do so, the internet is rife with companies that are willing to get a social for someone: https://www.google.com/webhp?sourcei...urity%20number
In addition to that, you should stop hearing from third parties about how much collections agencies charge and just call one. Even if it's 50%, you're still getting half your money instead of where you are now: With zero money. But for all you (and I, as I've never looked into it) know, they might work on a rate you find reasonable. So make some calls and see what they tell you, because, as someone else mentioned, your time is worth something as well and right now you're spending a lot of time with no results. You might be able to throw a little money at the problem and save a lot of time.
Best of luck to you however this goes. I'm sorry that you're having to learn about how bad some renters can be, but it sounds like you're not taking it out on your next ones and are just being more proactive about protecting yourself and your investment. It would really behoove you to charge potential tenants the $35 or whatever to run a credit check however, you can find out a lot about someone's behavior from them. Do they run up credit to insane limits or live within their means? Fiscal responsibility does not always mean personal responsibility but there are a lot of parallels and worth talking about if you like them otherwise. Having been a renter until very recently it is always understood that they'll pull my credit and it would be up for discussion.
Thank you for the insight and good advice jaymoney.
I'm wondering, have you used any of the services that offer finding an SSN on someone? I did a little research before posting, and while there are plenty of ads out there, I'm nervous about their validity. I found some online forums warning people of scams that posed as services such as these. I also asked a friend of mine who used to be a private investigator in NY, and he gave me a site for information gathering and such, but told me he knew of no such service where you could find SSN's as they were very sensitive information. Neither of these experiences convinced me that ways absolutely don't exist, and I am more than happy to spend a little money in order to get what I need. This leads me to why I started this thread; I'm looking for someone who has done this or knows someone who's done this and can tell me exactly how. If it costs $50 or $100 to get that information, I'll spend it gladly. It's way cheaper than a lawyer, I imagine, which is my next step.
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