I had tenants who gave me their 30-day notice the end of September'08 for a nice house I have in New Mexico. When their rent was not paid by the 8th of October I called them to remind them rent was due on the 1st they said they thought they paid a last month's rent when they moved in. I informed them they did not and that they only paid a cleaning deposit which was only 1/2 the amount of the rent. I suggested they look at their rental agreement. They said they could not find it. So I mailed a copy of it to them. When they rec'd it they emailed me saying they could not pay October's rent (now 15 days late). At this point I did serve them with a 3-day notice to vacate. However, they moved on Nov.1st so I never did get the sherriff's department involved in physically removing them.  They would pay half in December and the other half in January. It is now January 22 and so far no rent.

The tenents were consistently late with their rent. These people moved to Florida and although I asked them several times for a forwarding address they never gave me one. They also did not clean or repair anything so all of their deposit and more was used. They also left without paying 4 months worth of water/garbage bills.

I want to notify the credit bureau's of this. Do you know how I might go about this? Collection agencies say they don't handle 'small' accounts like this and suggested I file a judgement against these former tenants. Apparently I can do this on-line through the county where my property is located.

I would also like to know how to get these “dead beat” tenants name on a list so that other landlord/owners are not riped off by them. Do you have any suggestions?

Thanks for any advice or direction or wisdom you may have.

Carolyne