I own a few apartment complexes and have been renting units to people for a long time. Over the last couple years, a few tenants have left their units in horrible shape.
Again these instances didn't take place at the same time.
One of my tenants called and said they were leaving (was in the eviction process already). They had a cat that used the entire apartment unit as its litter box. Additionally, the kitchen was utterly destroyed. The oven and refrigerator were gone, the dishwasher was ruined, it looked like someone went crazy with a sledgehammer.
Another tenant simply abandoned their unit one month before their lease was up. After attempting to contact them after them missing their last month's payment, I was in the area and wanted to see if they would answer the door. They did not, but I looked into one of the windows next to the front door and saw a large mess of rotting food, gaping holes in the wall, etc. This guy was a bit older, so I called the local non-emergency police line and wanted the police to attempt a wellness check. Thankfully, the tenant had not passed away in the unit, but he was nowhere to be found and did not return to the unit.
To make a long story short, I ended up fixing both units, carpeting had to be replaced in both, many other things needed to be repaired, cleaned, and replaced. Getting the smell of cat piss out of a cement basement floor was a nightmare (ended up sealing it). This took me about 6 months. I have a full time job in addition to this.
I saved my receipts for the materials and sued both parties in small claims. I ended up getting a default judgement on both cases because neither appeared in court.
I was able to garnish wages of both tenants several times, but they left their jobs before I was able to secure much of what they owe me (collectively, around $9500).
I'm honestly not sure why I have wrote all this, the background isn't even really needed...
Here's my actual question :
Currently, I cannot find where either work to continue trying to recuperate my losses via garnishment.
Both of these people have extremely uncommon names and I have been able to find them on social media. What is the legality of making a fake social media accounts, adding/friending them, and prying information from them, posing as someone that they sort of knew at one time or something?
I do not want to break the law. Should I hire a private investigator? The suing part is over, so I'm not sure if hiring a lawyer will help me, or could it? I just want to collect what is owed. I could really use this money.
Submitted May 03, 2017 at 02:18AM by IIIllIIIIlIllIIIIIll http://ift.tt/2qvZbBy legaladvice
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