QLD Any experience recovering unpaid rent?

Hi All

looking for anyone with experience in going down the legal process to recover unpaid rent.

basic summary of the situation:
tenant has been evicted in 2019
Unpaid balance $3000
Had landlord insurance however not the optional unpaid rent cover.
qcat hearing ruled in favour of landlord
Qcat ruling has been ignored
Debt collection agency have located the debtor and attempted recovery with no success
Debt collection agency have advised that the next steps from here is to get the qcat ruling converted to a magistrates ruling, then get it heard in magistrates court, and then if magistrates ruling is not complied with, an arrest warrant will be issued.

so far I’m down the original debt $3000, plus around $500 spent on recovery costs to date.

the next steps are estimated to cost a further $1500 (magistrates court hearing being the most expensive part)

Best case scenario I can recover the debt plus a portion of the legal costs.

worst case scenario the debtor tells a good sob story, the magistrate feels sorry for the debtor, and all I have done is turned a $3500 loss into a $5000 loss

anyone been through something similar and have any advice as to what you would do? See it through to the end or cut your losses and move on.

cheers

 

Nailed it. Was that saving you made not to cover loss of rent worth more than it's saved?

 

Put it behind you, not worth the worry or expense ...

 

Speaking from someone who has been down this path, not with rental losses, but Business. It's just one thing after another until the end, when you can send a sheriff to collect all their worldly goods to sell, only to find that they don't actually own anything. The car is owned by the wife, anything of value is borrowed from x relative, etc. Of course, there's no way to legally challenge, what is essentially a lie.

 

... and tax deductible (ie, not income to be taxed on - and claim costs so far)

 

I’ve been down this path too and it’s is frustrating. I went as far as I could and got the tenant to pay.

The worry of it all was probably not worth it in the end, but in this case, I’d be dammed if I would let them get away with it - and they didn’t.

Choose your battles?

 

Thanks for all the replies.

my landlord insurance now covers unpaid rent. I thought I had this cover in this case however it forms out it was one of those “optional extras” boxes that I never ticked.

Whilst there is the financial side of the decision there is also a principle side.
I heard that it’s not until you take the tenant to the magistrates court, that they will finally get a black mark against them on the tenancy database. So if the tenant keeps doing this, and every landlord gives up, then they keep stealing money again and again and getting away with it. It would be nice if this were considered a criminal matter and not a civil matter!