Tenant moved out owing rent, water bill and damages. Is there a time limit in Michigan that the landlord must file charges with the court. I have already sent the Security Settlement Letter with in 30 days.

Mary,

Your tenant may not respond at all to your Settlement letter. They may be contacting a lawyer and you may get a response from an attorney instead of your tenant.

The tenant was very careful not give me her new address, but she did send me a letter after almost 30 days demanding her security deposit. However, I did send the security settlement to her new address before receiving her notice. These letters crossed in the mail. She sent me her P O BOX number.

Roy stop trying to scare her. This can and should be learned by every LL. WE are not DOORMATS!!!!! I can't stress that enough. Stop letting people (tenants ) get away with damaging your property or living FREE.

You sent notice of the debt and costs within the time frame?

We make an offer to settle for say 75% if they will agree to terms. Maybe offer PAY 25% WITHIN 30 DAYS, 20% FOR 3 PAYMENTS AND THEN THE Balance. Sign an agreement if you can.

Since you don't have a court case you can't do a consent using the dispo case. You can and should be as strong worked as possible-- outlining what will transpire. For example all court fees will be the burden, late interest on balance-- collection fees 25%, service of notice to your job (which you need to mention you prefer not doing but will)

After the initial offer to settle -- file your civil suit for breach of contract. Again though in order to collect you must show SERVICE. That's the hard part.

I do not kn ow your state's laws, but in my experience, the "statute of limitations" is usually between 1 and four years.

Thank You 'by myob' but I dont scare easy. My late husband told me I am one of the braves women he has known. I have my answer and I will proceed. It has been over 20 years since I took a tenant to court and I just needed an update in case things have changed. You will be glad to know that I had a long record of not letting a tenant get away owing me money, but it was broke when I got a tenant that declared bankruptcy and that was VERY HARD to take. It still hurts.

This is a wonderful place to get help and thank you for taking the time to care and help with my problem.

Mary I applaud you and your spirit. You know one satisfaction and it hurts to say but after paying a few years tenant declares BK-- Mary now a days that ain't cheap either. I can't tell you how often a debtor declares bk and then in a year or 2 gets kicked off because they did something stupid-- like not filing a tax return. This just happen for us. Now the deadbeat is begging us to accept less-- we're not. When you get kicked out of BK you can't re-file.

As far as how long you can keep a case going-- its a long time. The BK case I mentioned last-- we've been collecting since 2011-- with a short time of nothing since he declared BK. As long as we keep filing with the sheriff it can be renewed.