Collections after Lien Sale

Self_Storage_Life

What do you do after you have a lien sale and the unit does not bring what the tenant owed?  I've heard that you can take them to collections.  Please let me know what service you use if you do take to collections or place on their credit report.

skinman

Honestly... unless the amount still due is $500 or more, We write it off as bad debt.

i43storage

I used to just write it off - but I found a local collection agency that I can give the tenant information to and they only charge me if they get paid.  I may never see any money; however, the tenant gets a permanent collection on their record unless they pay up.  Since it costs me nothing, takes a few seconds to report, and I may see some of the money back, it's a total win.

skinman

Unfortunately, our Lawyer office won't make that deal...LOL

teamcapitola

In 7 years of auctions, and 40 or so tenants sent to collections, we have had ONE actually pay off the debt!

The collection company we use doesn't charge us, and only takes a % of recovered debt so not much to lose on our part. The company we just switched to is Phoenix World Wide Recovery.

Have to figure if someone has allowed their stored things to go to auction, they are not likely in good financial shape, and less likely to care about another mark on credit report.

Anything under $300 we simply write off as bad debt.

Orkocean

We write everything off as bad debt here, amounts owed after auctions, skips, whatever. I've tried pushing for us to send to collections but they don't want to. And as @teamcapitola mentions, it's a very low recover rate typically. In my past out of 22 sites I was over we'd get maybe 1-2 a quarter out of all the sites who would pay up. It was mainly in the Nashville market and Miami area that people would and it would be when they were trying to get a new house or something and it was effecting their ability to do so.

Danielle_Campbell

We use IC Systems, each manager has their own log in. It works well. You shoudl check them out.