Local courts actions for certified money order - Arrears not paid!

Is it that easy to get away from not paying rent and repairs?

Parties involved:
Agent A
Agent B (current)
2x Tenants that is on the lease
Tenant's daughter (with 2 children) that is not on the lease
Landlord

Agent A brings tenants into property. Several months of repairs and complaints from tenants. Tenant wants compensation, Agent A brings our a weak case and finds owner better just to pay for their complaints (because bringing it to the courts will be a long ordeal).
Owner pays for compensation and decides to change to Agent B, a stronger more helpful agent looking from a third perspective it is definitely tenants issue and we need to kick them out especially after 2 weeks of arrears. Awhile after using Agent B, both realized tenant had a daughter in the property that was not on the lease, and that the original 2 tenants on lease moved out and was the reason it went arrears.
Months of no rent daughter tenant finally moves out, with repairs and money owing we took from bond which did not cover, so still owing around 3500 amount. After tribunals and demand for payment did not happen, there is now a certified money order for the owing amount.

What are the legal avenues to pursue to get this money back?
What if we cannot find more details of the tenants for courts to follow on?
Can we get police?
What if they moved interstate?
Can we chase up the daughter? (not in lease)
Can we put the tenants in some black list?

Thank you in advance

 

Who is the order against?
You will have to find this person and try to enforce your judgment.

No crimes committed so police will not assist.

Do you have a contract with daughter?

 

Magistrates Court, though probably not worth the trouble. Ie might not find them, and even if do they might not have anything to take. You could try a debt collector such as Barclay MIS.

Exactly as per above.

No, police are for criminal matters but these are civil matters

As per 1 and 2 above.

No, there was no contract with her by the sound of it.

Yes possibly - there's rules to follow. I wrote a tip on this here - Tenancy Tip Thursday - Tenant Databases

You seem to be over-reacting a lot though. This is what bonds and landlord insurance is for. Have your PM put the claims through for both, get the place tidied up and back on the market.

 

Thanks for your replies.

The order is against the tenants that was on the lease.
Since they let their daughter be the one solely living in there with her 2 kids I would have assumed she had some obligations in the arrears. She is blacklisted with TICA is most likely why her parents funneled her way in without our permission.
Her daughter does work and we know where she works and lives, but her parents are somewhere out there...

In any case, now both the parents are listed under TICA by the managing agent apparently.

Bond is not enough to cover the arrears and damage to the property, still 4 figures after bond as per original post, and insurance granted but have to pay $800 in excess with premium being compounded is my last resort.

They have given us the worst experience as owners and they know how to make use of the tenancy loop holes.

We've seeked legal advice and the money order is now being enforced by local courts.

 

Unfortunately she went in illegally and it was hard enough to get her out and we were happy to see finally get her to leave after months of tribunal.

If finding them and they have nothing to give is essentially means they got away.
Local court suggests once enforcement of the order is made we can take it to the banks and garnishee the owing money.

... if that doesnt work, next step would be finding out how much debt collectors are.

All these options are definitely not guaranteed, so people can get away with it...

 

Unfortunately you can't get money out of someone that hasn't got any and won't have any.

 

If the persons named on the court order are working can you get a garnishee on their wages?

 

The managing agent only can do this if we know where they work, and then if they are still working there. (this was done) and apparently false information was provided (based on AGENT's A very bad job of filtering them in the first place) so they had only worked there for 2 weeks, and no longer works there and Agent B cannot find where they now live and where they work (if they work).
So I found out I may be able to garnishee their monies if any at their bank account level with a court enforced money order, but that account could be $0.

After finding the cost of a debt collector, it would be cheaper to do that then claim insurance that has increased premiums for the other investment (using same insurance).

 

Thats right, but money must come at some point for them to use, be it centerlink or work where these 2 IF I CAN FIND OUT (which without fees is not possible to find), then money can be taken from there, but if they got their own house and money from unknown source that we're done for.

I'm unlucky this happened to me, but I'm lucky as it could have been worse. At the very end of the day, owners still need to pay up for tenants faults and issues, but this is Australia, a lot of consumer/tenancy laws rules and regulations really opens loopholes for people who are more savvy than I am and many others who are naive that things like this can get away with.
In asia (particularly where my family is from) unthinkable things to get back money is the norm there (namely blackmailing) and will have very long lasting effect even after you've paid your debt.

 

Most insurers have no excess payable for rent related claims. Use that for the rent portion then bond for tidy up. By 'gaming' the figures that way, you maximise what you get out of it.

 

Even if they are working it would be unlikely you would be able to garnish their wages because there are minimum amounts which they would be allowed to keep for basic living expenses.

 

Worse case scenario, I'd assume there would be minimum amount, I still have to try, its not very small money to me.

The amount owing is just above $3k. The insurance is charging me an excess.

The problem is now finding their address, which both couples seem to have parted their ways since living here (as told my managing agent).

Anyone know how to get a person's address legally? (e.g. local courts?)

 

Not easy. facebook could be a good source as would google in general. Courts won't know and would not give it out if they did.

 

No a worse case scenario is that you spend time and additional money to try and enforce an order and literally get no enforcement orders, or something like $5/week if you're lucky.

 

I have given them a call, they do charge a $300 upfront cost then 20% of the money they collect and of course not guaranteed. Others have a no collect, no charge which I will try look into.

They are middle age (40s+) and don't seem to be on fb. I don't think most people would put their address on fb account.
I found there are several ways, but some require cost:
How to Find a Missing Debtor - CreditorWatch Blog

Some money back is better than no money, even if it means tarnishing their name on the tenancy db, withholding their money via garnishee their bank account, and blacklist their names at the courts. Even if I don't get my $3k back I would feel better that he is not going to have a good time cheating people's money and time.

 

If you claim against your Landlord insurance then you can't also claim against them privately. I would let your insurance company handle this and they will chase them pretty relentlessly to get their money back off them.
They have the skillset and the time to chase them and will always chase. They will pay out to you then they will seek payment from the tenants.
Talk to your PM about how to minimise excess on the landlord insurance as it can be done in certain situations. Let your PM handle it and then pat yourself on the back for actually having landlord insurance.

 

you can, as long as its for the shortfall rather than for the same money. The slip we get back after insurance claims says as much - ie seek orders from magistrates court or debt collector.

 

You're putting too much effort into it. Either stump up the excess and get your money quickly or pay a debt collector to get on with it or suck it up and move on.