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Last year at this time, a friend out of the country asked me to perform certain jobs related to a rental property. These jobs were things I hadn't done before, so I took photographs or video of myself at every step on the property. I got complete images of the tenants' cars with license plates--extremely clear images.
When my friend returned stateside, the power company attached a huge bill to his account when he established service at another property. The bill was for unpaid service over five years' old. The delinquent account turned out to belong to the owner of one of the cars I took a picture of (apparently still on good terms, let's put it, with a current tenant).
When the power company suggested suing this long-evicted tenant, I provided my friend with a suitable-for-framing picture of the car and license plate. My friend not only does not know the evicted tenant's current address but believes nothing of value, and certainly no money, could be gotten or repo'ed if he went to small claims court.
I said depending on the amount of a small claims court award, if he won, he could potentially take the entire car. So could posting the image with a clearly legible license plate online be regarded as illegal *in any state*? A tenant who misrepresents her income and who needs to be evicted over amounts in the area this one left unpaid almost certainly is doing the same to some other landlord. My friend is no lawyer OR keen about the internet, and is afraid of publishing the license plate. I said that it would at least be worth it to find out if publishing a picture of a car and identifying license plate is not illegal, because--at least in our state--you can legally photograph anything visible from the road.
Thank you for reading this, and any response would be appreciated.
likely a waste of time .all a tenant has to do is declare bankruptcy and game over . when a tenant owed me back rent i didn't even bother . she said if i sued her she would just declare bankruptcy
If your friend is not interested in pursuing it, I suggest letting it go. For what it's worth, the tenant may not even own the car outright. If it's financed, the bank owns the car.
To everybody who replied: Yep, you're all correct. That was why my friend seemed so uninterested, I guess, and also why I'm his gruntworker as opposed to a real estate developer. Just angers me to see outright thieves getting away with it.
You should be able to take the photo to the DMV and get owner's information.
Best to call the utilities and have them turned off before the new tenant moves in. The tenant can put them into his own name or go without. None of this leaving it for the landlord to pay for what the tenant uses.
Run a skip trace and sue for the damages under the contract, look up statute of limitations for contracts in your state here it is 6 years. That's the only way to "publish" the wrongdoing and can be done for cheap in small claims court.
could posting the image with a clearly legible license plate online be regarded as illegal *in any state*?
It's not illegal anywhere. You just have to be careful what you say as it could give rise to a defamation lawsuit.
I agree, however, that it's likely a waste of time. Real life doesn't work like Sophie on Wisdom of the Crowd TV show. The odds of anybody locating the vehicle and responding are slim to none.
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You should be able to take the photo to the DMV and get owner's information.
DMV's don't release that kind of information to the general public. You would need a court order or subpoena or a private investigator.
You would also run into the issue that deadbeats and skips don't change their addresses with the DMV so any address you glean from the license records is likely to be useless.
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I'll chase him round Good Hope, and round the horn, and round the norway maelstrom,
and round perdition's flames before I give him up.
I wouldn't go that far.
But I routinely sued tenants figuring that a judgment on their records would do some harm at some future date even if I never got a nickel.
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the tenant may not even own the car outright. If it's financed, the bank owns the car.
A common misconception based on ignorance. The bank doesn't own it. The bank has a secured interest in it. There's a big difference. The bank can't take the car unless the borrower breaches the loan contract.
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when a tenant owed me back rent i didn't even bother . she said if i sued her she would just declare bankruptcy
Bankruptcy is difficult and expensive. Lots of people make that threat and get sued anyway and then don't file bankruptcy for a variety of reasons. Smart creditors understand that and don't let the threat deter them.
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