Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
usually in cases like this they don't award money for lawyers costs only court costs.
Quote:
Originally Posted by sware2cod
Did the lawyer mean that you cannot file in Civil court if you will not be present for the hearings? Maybe the lawyer assumes you don't want to show up for hearings and the only way to do that is Supreme court.
Can you check into small claims court in that area (online) and see if you meet the criteria for that (without an attorney)? Are you willing to travel back to that area to attend the hearings?
If only a couple months rent, then maybe not worth it - especially if you get a judgement that you can't collect. Just weigh the pros and cons of court/judgements at a later date. Besides, you already have one judgement for 1 month rent, right? You would want Dec and Jan rent and attorney fees in a separate case, plus any potential damage, right? Hopefully there is hardly any damage.
My lawyer said that it would be @3000-$3500 for a lawyer and then @450 in filing/serving fees in Supreme Court. He said it was not worth it to throw good money after bad and the amount to sue would far exceed what I could collect anyway. He did suggest that maybe I could try & find someone who would do it on a contingency basis, but that he would be unable to take my case on going further ~ which I completely understand.
He has really been great and has been very receptive to me as we have gone through this as I have never done this before. I was upset yesterday that this was dragging out so much and he actually called the Sheriff's office himself (we had already spoken with them in the morning) to help move things along...
Yes ~ we do have a judgement for Nov rent and plan on trying to garnish wages. What we would want would be Dec rent & any possible damages...however our plan is to get her out, assess damages (if any)...tally what financial loss we have and then see if it is worth it to pursue them for the $.
We have learned ALOT about the whole landlord process through this and it has opened our eyes to how all of this works ~ I honestly had no idea. We became landlords because our house wasn't selling and a "friend" offered to do a rent to own on our home, which we took. We have made some bad decisions and all we can do now is learn from our mistakes and move on.
Hopefully someone who is reading this can learn as well and not repeat what we did!
That is what we think everyday and everyday we read more of the same issues from LL who run into a friend or through friends, of people who want to rent their place and it is all so cool and nice in the beginning....hopefully your story helps at least one person and prevent you from dealing with something similar the next time. Good luck in the future.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ota Blue
Thanks again everyone...
My lawyer said that it would be @3000-$3500 for a lawyer and then @450 in filing/serving fees in Supreme Court. He said it was not worth it to throw good money after bad and the amount to sue would far exceed what I could collect anyway. He did suggest that maybe I could try & find someone who would do it on a contingency basis, but that he would be unable to take my case on going further ~ which I completely understand.
He has really been great and has been very receptive to me as we have gone through this as I have never done this before. I was upset yesterday that this was dragging out so much and he actually called the Sheriff's office himself (we had already spoken with them in the morning) to help move things along...
Yes ~ we do have a judgement for Nov rent and plan on trying to garnish wages. What we would want would be Dec rent & any possible damages...however our plan is to get her out, assess damages (if any)...tally what financial loss we have and then see if it is worth it to pursue them for the $.
We have learned ALOT about the whole landlord process through this and it has opened our eyes to how all of this works ~ I honestly had no idea. We became landlords because our house wasn't selling and a "friend" offered to do a rent to own on our home, which we took. We have made some bad decisions and all we can do now is learn from our mistakes and move on.
Hopefully someone who is reading this can learn as well and not repeat what we did!
My lawyer said that it would be @3000-$3500 for a lawyer and then @450 in filing/serving fees in Supreme Court. He said it was not worth it to throw good money after bad and the amount to sue would far exceed what I could collect anyway. He did suggest that maybe I could try & find someone who would do it on a contingency basis, but that he would be unable to take my case on going further ~ which I completely understand.
He has really been great and has been very receptive to me as we have gone through this as I have never done this before. I was upset yesterday that this was dragging out so much and he actually called the Sheriff's office himself (we had already spoken with them in the morning) to help move things along...
Yes ~ we do have a judgement for Nov rent and plan on trying to garnish wages. What we would want would be Dec rent & any possible damages...however our plan is to get her out, assess damages (if any)...tally what financial loss we have and then see if it is worth it to pursue them for the $.
We have learned ALOT about the whole landlord process through this and it has opened our eyes to how all of this works ~ I honestly had no idea. We became landlords because our house wasn't selling and a "friend" offered to do a rent to own on our home, which we took. We have made some bad decisions and all we can do now is learn from our mistakes and move on.
Hopefully someone who is reading this can learn as well and not repeat what we did!
Did you have a contract for "rent to own" w/ this couple???. Wouldn't that get you more in damages?? You could have sold your house in this time? What a nightmare.
She had until midnight 1/18...I was contacted on 1/18 in the day to ask where I wanted the keys left, at that time she said that she ran out of time, that everything IN the house was garbage, but there still was a couple things left in the garage that she wanted, she was going to clean, etc She was planning to come by that night, but might not be able to because of weather/no car. She then asked if she could come by the next day to finish everything if she had to.
On 1/19 I had someone go over to change locks, assess damage, etc. I must say overall I am very lucky...there was alot of filth IN and AROUND the house (black grout/tub never cleaned/toilet & sink nasty with standing water) plus tons of garbage, but I was lucky as it was old wood, pizza boxes, clothes, suitcases, etc. There were minor repairs that will need to be done as well...
She still had a handful of stuff in the garage so apparantly she had not not come the night before, I contacted her to see if was planning on getting it and she said she would be there in the afternoon (I had someone at the house and she was only going to have access to the garage only) ~ she was a no show and never contacted me.
So we are done!
We are having the house cleaned, doing the minor repairs and have 2 trips to the dump and the house she be in good condition again ~ we haven't decided if we are going to try to sell again or rent it out.
I can give more information as this is over now...
The state the house is located in is NY and I now live in FL ~ my lawyer actually did say Supreme Court, but you never know maybe he meant Superior? We are owed one months rent & damages and I don't think the damages are going to amount to a large amount. We had a seperate rent to own contract and since we did a lease option fee, we waived the security deposit. They couldn't pay the entire lease option fee in full so we broke it up into 5 payments ~ they only made ONE payment, but that one was the amount of one's month rent. The fee was nonrefundable so technically I could pursue getting more money back...
I think we are just going to let it all go as we are now just throwing good money after bad, thank my blessings that my house was left in good condition, cut my losses and move on. I still DO have a judgement for $1470 that I will try to collect on at some point.
I have learned a GREAT deal through all of this and while it has been a financial blow, the valuable lessons will serve me well as both a landlord and a person. As my grandma says..."Did you Learn Something? Good! School costs money and you just went to school!"
OP, I am glad that this mess is finally done with! She's out, the house is yours again, and it sounds like it's better than what it *could* have been. I've heard too many horror stories about tenants smashing the walls, busting pipes, etc.
I agree that it is probably more work and money than it is worth to try and pursue it further.
Thanks for posting an update to let us know how it was resolved.
OP, you could check on filing a wage garnishment on the remaining 1400.00. Since you have a suite, maybe a collection agency would buy it from you. With the experience that you just had, I might give serious consideration to selling. Unless you have another friend that wants to rent from you.
To quote that machine voice on Jim Cramer's Mad Money..."Sell, sell, sell "
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
