Finding previous homeowner

Looking for better suggestions...

Please note: This all happened prior to the current BOD taking office, therefore I'm definitely not looking for advice on what 'should' have been done then. Need help getting this to move forward.

We had a homeowner that was foreclosed on and is no longer in the neighborhood. The Foreclosure is more than final and new owners of the property are already in. Prior to all this though, there were a couple years of outstanding dues that were never collected. We have managed to collect from the bank the portions of dues that were owed from the time the foreclosure was final to they time they sold it to the new owner, as well as the new owner is paying properly.

We have filed a complaint in the local magistrate's court, but the dilemma is that we keep missing on the address where they are living. We first tried using the address that the atty's were using in the foreclosure, but they have since moved. I tried using one of those address look-up sites, but on both occasions the results were to an address that doesn't physically exist (trying to get my money back out of those id10ts).

I'm looking for ways to just simply find them. I don't think they are specifically hiding, I just think my methods have just been unfortunately unsuccessful. Mind you, we don't have the extra funds to hire some expensive atty or investigator, so any cheap way to locate these guys would be helpful.

Thanks!!!

Writing it off doesn't help me find the previous homeowner...that is a not a suggestion on how to.

Again, I'm not looking for 'should haves', nor am I asking what the HOA should do. We already have a path forward, I'm only looking for suggestions on how to possibly find the previous homeowners without spending a bunch of money doing it.

It is a significant amount of money that they owe that the would really help the HOA, however, because of things like this being allowed to happen over the previous years (and prior to us taking back control of the HOA), it has put us in a very bad situation, and we are very cash poor. Hence the need to find these people without spending a large sum of money to do so. In the end, we can most likely get it back, but we don't have it to spend at the moment.

How old is the debt?

Find a google wiz first

See if your Attorney or another company can do a credit check or asset search on the individuals.

This should identify bank accounts and other property, if any, that are being held by them.

Those companies should have an address. However, it may take an attorney to get that information from them.

At some point, the collection costs will exceed the actual assessments due. If you haven't found them by then, it may simply be better to write the debt off.

Paul,

First let me say that I agree with all others that you should just forget about this debt. I am curious just what you think will happen if you do locate the former owner? Do you think he is going to hand over a bag of Kuggerrands and say, "Help yourself?" The reality is that even if you find him, even if you sue him, and even if you obtain a judgment, your chances of collecting from a deadbeat are almost zero. You would be money ahead to invest your association's funds in Powerball tickets.

But if you want to try to locate the former owner, you might look into the following. (BTW, the statute of limitations normally "tolls" (takes a breather) when a person cannot be found.)

Magazine publishers and other mass mailers have a database for tracking their customers. I do not know who maintains this or how one subscribes to it but it is amazing what they have.

Several years ago a family member was being harassed on the internet by a bunch of nameless little trolls. Over time the rest of our family became targets of these morons. One of them obtained a list of addresses that absolutely blew my mind away. The list started off with every mailing address back to the 1960's that the family member ever had, including my parents' home. For each address the list included the names of some others who had once received mail there. Then I found that my name was on the list, with a fairly complete history of everywhere I had ever lived, including the home my wife owned when we married. Her history was in there as well as her deceased parents'. I have no idea where, exactly, this list came from but it was incredibly accurate as to my own information but my point is that this information is out there and it is available if you know where to look. I do not know where to look.

posted simply for price comparison purposes

not an advertisement - no personal knowledge or stake in vendor

http://www.skiptracing.com/onlinePI.htm

posted simply for price comparison purposes

The amount we are trying to collect just short of $1000. To many of you, yes, this amount is not worth the effort.

Lets face it, we all have our unique instances where we have to sit down and make a judgement call, and determine if the "juice is worth the squeeze". In this instance, we have done just that, and the consensus is that we proceed. We know how much is owed, and we know what certain costs are, and what risks are present. Given these items, it was chosen to proceed.

I'm not going to try to speak to what sheriff service costs (or other costs) are in Alabama, or any other state other than SC. However, I will shed this little tidbit of light that helps keep things in perspective for you all. As I mentioned above, the outstanding debt is roughly $1000. Our total annual operating budget is only $5,500. So you can see by those two figures alone, that if we are able to locate the previous owners, get a judgement, and follow that up with the writ, then even at the end of the day if we only get 50% of that, it still makes up a significant portion of our overall revenue.

Secondly, the cost for all of this to this point has been very small. $80 to file the complaint and have them served. And yes, service was done by the sheriff. Unfortunately, they have moved. We tried again with a new address also within the same county, but it seems they have moved from there also. This second service cost us $10.00 to have the sheriff try the new address. We since learned of a new address outside of the county, but the way OUR court system works (flawed or not), the court provides us with a summons already prepared for mailing via USPS certified mail. All we have to do is pick that up and take it to the post office and return the receipt to the court. This costs us all of $7.91, plus $0.35 because I had the little shop next door make a copy of the receipts for my own record.

As you can see from all of this, the fact that we have spend less than 10% of what we are trying to collect, continues to make pushing forward worth it. However, yes, we all understand that at some point, this may become not worth it, but we are not at this point yet. Right now, it all hinges on if we can locate a valid address (cheaply), and if so, we will invest another $7.91 + $0.35 to have service sent there (or $10.00 if it is actually in our county).

Once we can get into the court room, the case is quite simple...they owed, didn't pay, we have all the records to support it. We will walk away with the judgement against them that will entitle us to recoup most of the money spent charging them. After that, there is another less than $80 fee that sends the sheriff to collect (writ of execution like document, but not called that here). I don't care if he collects cash, or something has to be sold off. That discussion is between the defendants and the sheriff and does not involve us in that process.

My HOA's monthly income is also $5K a month. A HOA is ONLY to spend as much money as it collects. Nothing more and nothing less. I think you are getting into the mind frame of what you do as a PERSONAL level in collecting money. Your NOT doing this on a "Personal" level but as a GROUP. This is a BIG issue for most HOA's boards to understand. Your job as the BOD of your HOA is to manage the money on the behalf of ALL the members. I think if your going to go after former owners, you may want to see the consensus of the rest of your HOA's attitude.

I am sorry you don't want to hear the advice of others here. You know what you are going to do and want justification for it, you come to the wrong group of people. We are mostly realist here who have been down this route more than once. I know I have. It's honestly NOT worth it as you are just planting holes and not filling them up.

There are just so many rabbit holes one can chase before you trip and fall into one can't see the light in... Knowing the costs of collecting on a bad debt even if it was "free", it's still not worth it. Sorry, but I can live with someone owing me money if I know that will never happen again...

BTW: A lien on this person in the first place would have prevented this entire issue. They could not have sold their house until they paid. A lawsuit does NOT do this. Which is where collection is a good luck deal...

Here’s a link to a webpage with some tips on how you could use various Internet sources to try and find the homeowner – no guarantees, but it’s a start.

http://websearch.about.com/od/peoplesearch/tp/peoplesearch.htm

You might also want to talk to your association attorney – he or she likely uses certain legal databases for the work (e.g. Westlaw), which has some resources for finding people. Again, not a guarantee of anything, but it’s better than nothing.

As a practical matter, I have to agree with everyone else in that you’re better off spending you time and energy in moving on and writing off this account. As a former Board treasurer, I feel your pain and agree it would be great to collect the money if you can find the homeowner, but you still have to keep the statute of limitations in mind (your attorney can give you more information on that).

Also, someone (you?) will have to be willing to take the time to sue those “cheap” methods to find the homeowner. Are you willing to spend several hours, a day or more on this? If you or your fellow board members can’t or aren’t willing to do it, you’ll have no choice but to pay a skip tracer (who may have more resources than you do). Time is money, after all, so one way or the other, you have to pay - better to spend your energy and resources in making sure this won't happen again.

The OP did make it clear (in fact he repeated himself) what he was asking for and that was how to fidn a person. He was not asking for advice on why.

I realize one can get off the mark replies to a posting but he was clear what he was asking for.

I can sympathize with you, Paul. I don't post questions often, but the last two I posted, I, too, begged responders to stick with my question. But some who replied could not resist giving a lecture about the past, etc. I guess some people have an inner compulsion to type no matter their inability to answer (just like I am now!!!).

Christine's method seems worth a try!