Tenant Wage Garnishment in Delaware - Landlord Forum thread 358580

Tenant Wage Garnishment in Delaware by Trish on September 12, 2018 @09:34

Summary: we are out of state landlords and rented to a single mother and things were fine the first few months until the radio silence and sob stories. That pattern would repeat until we finally had enough when she missed 2 payments in the last 5 months. According to her, she is on disability leave from work. We told her we would work with social services to at least get some payments, but the caseworker told us tenant failed to provide necessary work document. Tenant voluntarily moved out on August 31 to avoid involving Justice of Peace.

After she moved out we starting learning more from the neighbor: unreported broken appliances (we have a warranty service), unreported litters of cats (she told us she had 2 neutered cats and 1 small dog), unreported subletting of rooms (one tenant smoked and the other had a ferret). On top of that, we learned that the tenant has been a danger to herself and her young children and was reportedly involuntarily committed a couple of times, which resulted in loss of child support.

We contacted her current employer to verify if she is still working there, but they referred us to Equifax and her colleague told her that we called. Several DE lawyers told us they couldn't help us b/c of conflict of interest with her employer (large mortgage company).

My questions: how do we pursue a debt action if we can't find a lawyer? Also, she may or may not be employed so is it even worth it to hire a lawyer (and dig ourselves an even bigger financial hole) if she turns out to be judgement proof (eg, already wage garnishment on her record) or if she is not employable due to her purported disability and has no income/assets.

Lastly, since we did not go through the Justice to get a summary possession and she voluntarily left, how soon can we dispose of her abandoned property (our agent stated that it looked like a hoarding situation with cats still living inside the house)?

Thank you for any advice or feedback you can provide. This has been a nightmare so please be kind; we acknowledge our naivete.

[ Reply ] [ Return to forum ]

Re: Tenant Wage Garnishment in Delaware by LAMAC66 on September 13, 2018 @07:35	[ Reply ]

Your best bet is to start with the landlord tenant laws of DE. Most likely found on the states website secratary of state link. Then check out the locality that the rental was in legal aid site. Although the serve tenants you can gain useful information there as well. Although you may not be able to get any money soon at least go through the process and have paperwork lined up just in case you are able to garnish wages ect. In addition you may be able to give landlords a heads up by putting this mark on her record for compentent landlords to avoid when they do their background check if this person applies for another rental. The only person who would rent to her now is a slumlord or someone that just rents their house out with no clue.