Executive Credit Management, Inc.
Your Applicant Screening and Debt Collection partners for over 20 years
In some States, Eviction Courts also deal with Money Judgments relating to the final charges to the Tenant. Others, such as New Jersey, only concern themselves with possession of the Apartment unit.
In these cases, money is usually part of the process because failure to pay rent is the most common cause of an Eviction. The Judge, however, will only rule on who will have control of the apartment unit. This leads to confusion by many Tenants and a hostile attitude toward paying their final bill.
They go into the Court knowing they are being sued for Eviction and the papers clearly state they owe money. Sometimes they come with a check to pay that amount and, usually the landlord rejects the payment because they want to end the tenancy. This makes a confusing situation even worse.
From the Tenant’s perspective they offered money and it was rejected by the Apartment. Furthermore, when the eviction is granted, the Judge informs the Tenant they do not have to pay any money. They frequently walk out of the courtroom feeling debt free.
Fast forward a few months and your debt collection agency will send them a letter. The amount of the debt expressed in the letter is even more than what was provided by the apartment at the Eviction Trial.
They often respond in anger. They are absolutely certain that the Judge said they owed nothing and, if the Apartment rejected their payment, the Apartment accepted no payment with the Eviction. They generally refuse to pay.
Of course, eventually they are reported to the Credit Bureaus but they dispute these entries with righteous indignation. They are absolutely this is a fraud.
Only with litigation in a Money Court will they be forced to face reality. Even here, however, many continue to believe they owe nothing and the court is working for the Landlord. Collecting that bill becomes much more difficult and much more expensive than it would have been if the Tenant had been educated about how Non-money Eviction Courts handle the Eviction process.
If you are a Landlord, you might want to provide the tenant subject to Eviction with an explanation of what will happen in court. Be specific and tell them that money may be mentioned but the Court is only concerned with possession of the apartment unit. Note that if they are evicted, they will not owe any money related to the Eviction but they will still owe all unpaid rent and other final expenses related to leaving the apartment. Suggest they contact you to resolve these final expenses.
Some of these Tenants will contact you to work out their final bills. Others will be willing to work the final bill out with your debt collection agency without resorting to litigation. You will save time and money. The letter will not cost much to produce.
Saving time and money is a good thing for any business.
ABOUT EXECUTIVE CREDIT MANAGEMENT, INC.
Executive Credit Management is a full-service Debt Collection and Applicant Screening agency with over 20 years experience located in Central New Jersey. We provide excellent service in the following areas: Employment Screening, Business Screening, and Tenant Screening. Executive Credit Management belongs to a number of Skip Tracing databases and offers services to help locate and confirm the current address of missing debtors. Other services provided are: litigation evaluation on all lawsuit decisions, improvement of the quality of the applicant data, Lawsuit Monitoring, Handling of Debtor Disputes. Executive Credit Management features the best Call Monitoring System in the Debt Collection industry.
