For those of you that say "I'm not going to bother taking the tenant to court" or "they don't make any money/ungarnishable, etc so why bother putting a judgement on them" here's proof that it DOES matter:

Earlier in the year I received a check from the local Marshal that I use. It was for about $180. I looked at it and just thought "what the heck"?! It was from a tenant that we evicted 9 YEARS AGO!!

At the time of the original eviction/court and we won the Marshal said "it's not really worth putting a judgement on this person - they have quite a few on now - you'll most likely NEVER collect". I said "do it anyway - even if I don't get paid they need to realize what they did". It's the POINT that I needed to make to them since this is something I knew they did to landlords obviously (skipping out, leaving a huge mess, not paying, etc).

Well, 9 years later - I'm getting paid. Back in August (while on vacation) I received TWO MORE checks!

Just got back from Florida visiting our daughter and guess what?! ANOTHER CHECK!!

Yeah - it's not making me rich but BOY IT MAKES ME FEEL GOOD that although I may have been down the list on people being paid - I'm getting it back now! WHOOP!! haha

Judgment nine years ago and you are getting paid now. Way to go CJL

A question. Does your judgment run out after 10 years? I believe ours do here in MO. We have to revive the judgment if we want it to continue.

There could be little print that says if they are paying then you don’t have to revive the judgment.

Just something that crossed the empty canyons of my mind. You might want to check into that or maybe someone else will come along and set us straight.

cjl,

WHOOP WHOOP!

That is an excellent story that helps remind me that as a New Year's Resolution, go renew those old judgments that are neatly tucked away in a folder.