How Can I Recover Fees from the Tenant that I Couldn’t Get in the Eviction?

So, the first way is you could file a separate lawsuit against your Tenant. [Now you could be thinking, “What? No. Are you serious?”] So, your eviction lawsuit is limited to unpaid rent, court costs, attorney’s fees, if they apply, and that’s it.

Your Lease will often spell out the kinds of damages the Tenant is on the hook for after a default. The damages that are left out are things like, late fees, damage to the property, accelerated rent, relating costs, or other things that you had to pay because they breached the Lease.

Unfortunately, none of these damages can be included because of the limitations of an eviction. But if you really feel like you need justice, you can file a subsequent lawsuit against that Tenant.

In fact, you should file it simultaneously with the eviction, specifically because you know where they are, and they’ll be easier to serve. That is something that you can even do out of the same Justice Court.

You can file if you already know your damages. The tricky thing about it is you may not know the extent of your damages until after the Tenant leaves.

So, what’s the other way that you can collect it? You can collect fees from your Tenant when they’re handing you money.

And, yes, the eviction lawsuit is limited to unpaid rent. But your Lease probably has a provision that says you can apply by any payment first to outstanding fees, even to damage to the property potentially, if you can associate it to the negligence of the Tenant. Look for a section in your Lease that discusses the “Application of Funds.”

Demand that old fees get paid FIRST. Landlords shouldn’t let certain things go. I recommend Landlords to use the money that is coming and that continues to come in to cover old debt. So, how do you collect that proactively?

·        Step 1. Don’t let all the fees accumulate;
·        Step 2. If you do have to evict because this person is consistently paying late, causing damage to the property that you have to go in there and repair, make sure that all that comes out of their subsequent payments.

And if they have a rent balance due, give them notice and an opportunity to pay it, or file the eviction. So, the quicker you get these Tenants out, the likelier you’re going to reduce these headaches: damages for late fees, property damage and other costs associated with dealing with a terrible Tenant.

There’s actually a third mechanism that may be harder to employ, and it comes with requiring a bigger deposit. You may not be charging enough for your rental or to this particular renter. More money up front means a greater protection for you as Landlord and a higher incentive for the Tenant to comply with the Lease.

So, particular renters that you feel are “higher risks” should be paying a greater amount in deposit. Maybe you already at the pre-Lease stage see red flags, or hear sirens, or blaring lights, like “I wouldn’t lease to that particular person.”

But if you’re a risk taker, and you’re thinking, “Well, they’re here,” you probably want to consider a larger deposit. My way is always preventive. If you can prevent an accumulation of fees, you don’t have to go and chase it. But if you do have to chase them, then the way you do it is with a subsequent lawsuit.

So, you can file the lawsuit even simultaneously with your eviction. And try to recover as much as you can from this Tenant with a lawsuit for the damages that they inevitably have caused by breaching the Lease. 

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