- Joined
- Aug 31, 2007
- Messages
- 950
Recently, I have experienced two tenants who have left me with fairly large receivables... significant enough to try to get judgments against them. My experience has taught me things about obtaining a judgment that I feel I should pass on to the community.
When taking an application from a prospective tenant, get a SIN, date of birth, and vehicle license numbers. This information will make it much easier to obtain, and ultimately, collect on a judgment. The tenant has the right to not give you a SIN. But, you have the right to reject an application if they do not.
One of my two tenants was inherited with the building. The guy paid cash for everything, including rent. He has no credit history. Nor did the previous owner get a SIN or DOB from him. We will probably be unable to collect any of his arrears.
The second tenant submitted an EFT form to me, which I then passed on to the bank. By giving me the form first, I have their banking information. If they had sent it directly to MY bank, I would not be able to gain access to the information on that form. Having that information helped us track the tenant down. However, I was not asking for DOB or SIN at the time.
My application has been changed to include DOB, SIN, and vehicle license #. Those who are using EFTs, collect the EFT form from the tenant for you to give to the bank. Do not have the tenant forward it to your bank.
If the tenant pays by cheque, keep a copy of at least one cheque, or the account information along the bottom of the cheque.
When taking an application from a prospective tenant, get a SIN, date of birth, and vehicle license numbers. This information will make it much easier to obtain, and ultimately, collect on a judgment. The tenant has the right to not give you a SIN. But, you have the right to reject an application if they do not.
One of my two tenants was inherited with the building. The guy paid cash for everything, including rent. He has no credit history. Nor did the previous owner get a SIN or DOB from him. We will probably be unable to collect any of his arrears.
The second tenant submitted an EFT form to me, which I then passed on to the bank. By giving me the form first, I have their banking information. If they had sent it directly to MY bank, I would not be able to gain access to the information on that form. Having that information helped us track the tenant down. However, I was not asking for DOB or SIN at the time.
My application has been changed to include DOB, SIN, and vehicle license #. Those who are using EFTs, collect the EFT form from the tenant for you to give to the bank. Do not have the tenant forward it to your bank.
If the tenant pays by cheque, keep a copy of at least one cheque, or the account information along the bottom of the cheque.