Don’t Forget to Renew Your Money Judgement

When a tenant owes a landlord money there are two ways to collect; either go to court to hopefully obtain a money judgement and/or send them to collections.

Money judgments

This is the most effective, yet you have to go to court and prove it out. If successful, or if the case is not contested, the judgement will be awarded. The next step is to collect, but if the defendant is not cooperative, then you go after their assets and garnish wages. We recommend hiring an attorney or collection company to assist you. Judgments are good for 10 years and should be renewed every 10 years.

Collections

Collections helps when the tenant wants to open a line of credit or completing a rental application. Most collection companies don’t list the debt detail, so the tenant can claim they didn’t pay for bad dental work, not for unpaid rent. To avoid this pitfall, we’re directly piped into the credit bureaus as the collection company and the property management company, so no false tails can be told. They either pay their debt or they won’t be moving anytime soon.

As a side note, most California courts are sealing eviction cases, so landlords will never know the applicant was evicted before.

I hope this was helpful and feel free to reply with any questions you may have or call me at 949-209-9494 or visit GenuineManaged.com to learn more about us.

Marcel Ford
Genuine Property Management

* We are not attorneys nor financial or tax advisors and the information above we deem to be accurate but is not guaranteed.