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So how do utilities and other creditors do it without going to court?
Public Utility and Consumer Finance laws
And even they have to go through a LOT of steps before they can report non payment.
fwiw.. it's not all that hard to take a tenant to Court and get a judgment
but you WILL have to follow the civil law process and be able to actually prove it.
If you can... it'll give you a nice warm and fuzzy feeling to have gotten the Judgment.
If all the stars align (like a lotto win) you might even see that money some day too.
So how do utilities and other creditors do it without going to court?
Because they are Reporting Members of a credit bureau. If you want, just go to any of the main bureaus and follow their process for becoming a reporting member. It cost you, so it’s not free. I know one of them actually has to send a person to your place of business and they grill you on the FCRA. If you don't know it or mess up on answers, they reject you.
You can also become a member of some organization such as your state landlord association who may have a Reporting Member contract that you can tie onto. You give them the information and they enter it into the system. This may be included in some dues or may be a fee for service. Some may even serve as your FCRA compliance clearinghouse as well.
Of course, you will always be legally liable for any information you report.
Another poster is very right...go to court and get a judgment and it will show up on the next background check.
One of my past tenants paid since it was hurting them with new rentals and background checks for a new job.
Another one was such a dead beat that he got an eviction following my judgment and will keep doing the same since some will not pull a report even though they are warned to do so by many people and as can be seen on website and another LL. And I both went to court to prevent others from dealing with this family.
Without going to Court, winning and getting a Judgment first? Nope.
I was very pleased to see that for just under $13 I could report my last tenant to all three credit agencies on the Mr. Landlord web site. It is a collection company, they handle the legal notification letter and they will keep a percentage.
You can sell the debt for money owed to you by a tenant to a collection agency. The collection agency will report it to the credit companies.
My suggestion is to file against the tenant in small claims court. The judge will give you a judgement for money. Record that judgement. Once it is recorded, the credit companies will pick it up and add it to the credit report. After that, sell it to a collection agency and it will be on the tenant's credit report both as ajudgement and as an unpaid debt in collections.
If the tenant is a deadbeat, you might not ever see any money, but the rest of us landlords will thank you when we order a credit report and see that the applicant is in collections and has a judgement for money owed to a prior landlord. I appreciate it when another a landlord warns me about a difficult tenant so I can reject their application.
You can sell the debt for money owed to you by a tenant to a collection agency. The collection agency will report it to the credit companies.
My suggestion is to file against the tenant in small claims court. The judge will give you a judgement for money. Record that judgement. Once it is recorded, the credit companies will pick it up and add it to the credit report. After that, sell it to a collection agency and it will be on the tenant's credit report both as ajudgement and as an unpaid debt in collections.
If the tenant is a deadbeat, you might not ever see any money, but the rest of us landlords will thank you when we order a credit report and see that the applicant is in collections and has a judgement for money owed to a prior landlord. I appreciate it when another a landlord warns me about a difficult tenant so I can reject their application.
So, by selling it to a collection agency am I right in thinking that they will pay me? If so how much?
I agree with what Rabrrita said that you need to become a paying subscriber to the credit bureaus, or use a subscriber's service, to report the tenant debt, like the one above. It has a couple of different options.
Another way to have your tenant's payment history show up on a credit report, is to use a rent payment service. I recently read about this on Experian's website:
Scroll down to see the rent payment services that report to the bureaus.
Judgments are hit and miss as far as showing up on a credit report. Plus, you still have to collect. I think you can use the collection agency without getting a judgment, but you'll have to check that out.
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Yes you can!!!
