Woo Hoo!!! My landlord days are OVER!!!!

[ssmdem]

I'm a little bit glad -- can you tell? Cookoo woman hasn't paid us a dime since October and has finally got the last bit of her stuff out of the house today. Left a busted window and walls with holes in them and then had the nerve to get in a screaming match with me because she thinks I owe her the deposit back. Get over yourself woman!! I must say it did get ugly -- but so glad to finally have her out of our lives. Try to help someone and it bites you in the behind -- never again!!

Now, that being said, we are surrendering the property -- but we may possibly have to move back in there ourselves depending on timing. If we do, it's money out of our pocket to fix the damage because we voluntarily let her exhange the deposit for a month of rent -- a fact she conveniently seems to forget now. A friend said I could put it on her credit report that she left the property damaged and the amount -- can I? How can I go about that? I know I legally have no recourse against her since we agreed to give up the deposit - my mistake - was trying to be nice and felt sorry for her, but it sure would make me feel better if I could get the "last word" in a way.

Second question --- the property will be vacant until and/or if we move back in. Is this a problem for us? As of now, it's insured -- we intend on trying to make it look as lived in as possible, but the bank has contacted us to ask if we are surrendering the property and did inquire if it was occupied. At the time, she was in there, and I told them it was. Will they check on that again? Don't really want to move back in there, but also don't want to burn that bridge either. Should I be concerned?

[IBroke]

A friend said I could put it on her credit report that she left the property damaged and the amount -- can I?

I seriously doubt it....

[ssmdem]

I really didn't think so either. Stupid me should have never allowed them to stay without a deposit to cover any damages. Live and learn. I guess the other thing that kinda concerns me now -- she was included on our bankruptcy filing -- under the leases section. Our attorney says that covers us if she tries to come after us for anything -- didn't think that was even an issue until I saw the other side of her personality today. What on earth could she come after us for? Anything? She paid last month's rent and a deposit equal to one's month rent and hasn't paid us anything for November and December -- so essentially, rent-wise, it's a wash, which we were fine with. I've taken pictures of the damages. Is there anything else I need to do to cover ourselves? It bugs me that she's got our social security numbers now since we had to include her in the filing -- but will be blocking those with the credit bureaus so hopefully there won't be anything she can do with them. I just don't trust this woman now.

[Chowder]

What's stopping you from just hiring or selling the debt to a collection agency? They'll handle the credit agencies.

[Peeps]

First things first: Congratulations!! You got a dose of freedom!! Yeah, you paid a price for it but still... sweet yes?!?!

Second, I don't know if it varies by state but where I am they're adamant about redacting things like SSNs and account numbers on filed BK paperwork. There's supposedly only one piece of paper that has your SSN on it and it doesn't get entered into public records. I'd sure like to hope that's true for all states and not just the one I'm in. Maybe a quick call to your attorney would help clear things up? If your nutcase renter rears her ugly little head, just let her know you haven't ruled out a trip to small claims court for property damages. Even if you intend to let the whole thing go, she really doesn't need to know that, does she?

[ssmdem]

What's stopping you from just hiring or selling the debt to a collection agency? They'll handle the credit agencies.

I guess nothing -- but honestly, don't think it's worth the hassle. If we don't move back into the house temporarily, I'm not fixing it anyway. The bank can deal with it when they foreclose on the house.

I guess my biggest concern now since she for some reason thinks she's entitled to her deposit is if she might actually try to sue us for it. She paid first and last month's rent, as well as a deposit when she moved in. Her lease expired in January of 2011. We notified her in October when we were there throwing away even more money into the money pit fixing the AC on a house that we're surrendering in bankruptcy. One more stupid mistake we've made along the way. But told her then that we wouldn't be able to renew the lease when it expired in January due to the financial problems we were having. We told her at that point if she wanted to just let December and January's rents be deducted from the money she had paid in the beginning (last month's and deposit) that it would be fine with us -- was trying to give her a chance to save up some money to move. She called back and asked if she could just break the lease and get both amounts back right then. We told her no, but even told her at that point -- "Look, until the bank starts foreclosure proceedings, I really don't care if you stay in there for months after the lease expires. We're not kicking you out -- we just can't renew the lease. So take your time, save up a chunk of money. Frankly, if you let the $$ you've paid count as November and December and don't pay us anything at all from this point on - that's fine too." She said she'd think about it, and we've never heard another word from her until last week. She didn't send payment in November, and I honestly didn't care, cause I didn't blame her based on our conversation. Well, apparently, she moved out over Thanksgiving weekend, as we've found out from talking to neighbors today. She never notified us, and the only way we found out was because I received a bill from the power company - it automatically converts back to us when a tenant disconnects power. We went over to the property last week, and she still had a bunch of stuff in the house - and a TOTAL disaster of trash in the back yard. It was REALLY NASTY!!! That's when we saw the damage inside. My husband called her, and she said she would have everything out by the end of the month. She said she knew about the damages but didn't have the money to pay us to fix it. Today, we went over there to make sure she had removed all of her property, and most of it was gone. She showed up while I was starting the process of trying to clean up some of the mess they left, and that's when she started spouting off about us stealing her deposit, and we could just use that to fix everything. When I asked her why she thought I owed her a deposit since she had not paid us any rent at all since October, she actually said, "Because WE weren't in the house -- just our stuff." ???????? It really did get ugly, but I think she's loony enough to try to get an attorney to take the case if one would. I guess I shouldn't worry. I can't imagine that she could possibly sue us and get anywhere, and I'm just willing to write off the damages if it gets her out of our life.

Peeps - as far as our social security number, if she got the same thing some other creditors did, they are both on there. I know what the other creditors received because we had to list my parents since they had loaned us money years ago that we've never been able to pay back. Mom showed me what she got, and both of our social security numbers are on there. I'm guessing this woman would have gotten the same type of paperwork. Doesn't bother me that the credit card companies got it - they had them anyway -- but it does make me VERY nervous that this woman has them.

But yes, I'm VERY greatful to not have this rental headache any longer to have to deal with. Sadly, she's our fifth tenant but the ONLY one that ever gave us any grief. Everyone has always left the house in good condition - never had any problems collecting rents. Unfortunately, we just simply couldn't charge enough rent to cover the mortgage even, so we've lost $400 a month for four years praying that the economy would turn around and we could sell it. Now, we're losing our house too in the process.

Sorry for the book Just can't sleep tonight. So keyed up from the screaming match today I guess. I know I lost my temper, but I couldn't believe the nerve of that woman after everything we had done for her. Her credit STUNK, but agreed to let her move in because her dad cosigned with her. She was a single mom whose husband just left her, and she cried her eyeballs out to me. We've bent over backwards to help her while she's been there and even the midst of our problems, we were still trying to help her. WHEW! She really hit a nerve today!

[Chowder]

I guess nothing -- but honestly, don't think it's worth the hassle.

Since she didn't notify you she was vacating, for all you know she's on vacation. Maybe she just likes to vacation with her furniture. Anyway. Supposing she's not vacationing, she has broken the lease. She'd owe you for Nov and Dec. You'd owe her whatever deposit funds minus damages.

This is pretty much a wash. Hopefully she's not silly enough to not see this.
Otherwise, it may become worth the hassle.

[iv65536]

What's stopping you from just hiring or selling the debt to a collection agency? They'll handle the credit agencies.

... or including it as an asset in the BK case and not exempting it - let the trustee go after her.

[helpmeout]

Get an estimate of how much damage she did, if it is over the amount of the deposit, then you can go after her for the difference.