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Author: Subject: Can I make a legal Claim
thebajarunner
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[*] posted on 12-6-2008 at 08:55 AM
and now for the important question!!!


Good job- so far.
My question--- have you collected?
Getting a small claims judgement in our glorious state of Calif. is often a looooooong way from visiting the pay window.
I have several small claims judgements that I have won, but never been able to collect.

Hope you are successful, I feel your pain.

We operated a property management company, as an adjunct to our development company, for many years, and we always returned deposits, unless there was compelling reasons not to do so.
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BajaNuts
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[*] posted on 12-6-2008 at 05:44 PM


If the person you have won judgement against has any property, file a lien right away, even if you think you'll get the money out of them without further hassles. Liens on property are paid out in an order based on who filed their lien first. If they are of shady moral character, it is possible that more than one person would be after them.

Once the lien is in place, and as long as you don't need the money right away, just sit and wait. When they go to sell the property they will have a nice :fire:surprise waiting from the title search company. The lien will have to be taken care of (meaning you get your money and remove the lien) before the property can be sold. Option B is to send them a copy of the lien, so they know about it and maybe they'll pay you sooner to get rid of it.

You may have to get creative as to finding their property. Aside from their house, do they own business property, vacation property, vacant lot somewhere? You may have to do some digging at the county courthouse.

If they don't have any property, persistance (in a non-threatening way) works. bajarunner probably has more trouble collecting from renter-type people as they don't have big items you can lien.

Good luck, keep us posted.
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thebajarunner
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[*] posted on 12-6-2008 at 05:55 PM
All well and good, except......


Quote:
Originally posted by BajaNuts
If the person you have won judgement against has any property, file a lien right away, even if you think you'll get the money out of them without further hassles. Liens on property are paid out in an order based on who filed their lien first. If they are of shady moral character, it is possible that more than one person would be after them.

Once the lien is in place, and as long as you don't need the money right away, just sit and wait. When they go to sell the property they will have a nice :fire:surprise waiting from the title search company. The lien will have to be taken care of (meaning you get your money and remove the lien) before the property can be sold. Option B is to send them a copy of the lien, so they know about it and maybe they'll pay you sooner to get rid of it.

You may have to get creative as to finding their property. Aside from their house, do they own business property, vacation property, vacant lot somewhere? You may have to do some digging at the county courthouse.

If they don't have any property, persistance (in a non-threatening way) works. bajarunner probably has more trouble collecting from renter-type people as they don't have big items you can lien.

Good luck, keep us posted.


This is all accurate info.
The trouble is.....
you cannot 'force' the sale of the property you have liened.
as long as they hold the property, you only hold paper.
I have seen liens sit in place for a verrrrrrrry looooooong time!

My judgements that I referenced were from flaky clients in the days that I had a public accounting practice,
never collected a single one,
alas...
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BajaNuts
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[*] posted on 12-6-2008 at 06:43 PM


Yes, bajarunner, you are quite correct in that the lien can sit for a looong time. Hopefully Tim40 picked up on the "if you don't need the money right away..." sentance.

Option B sometime consists of literally camping on their doorstep, but it takes the right personality to be able to do that. We are still trying to recover 6K from a bad real estate deal from someone in Canada, and they have nothing to go after.
I feel your pain...
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[*] posted on 12-7-2008 at 12:42 PM


i agree judgments can be problematic and/or hard to collect.

i have only dealt with one type of lien, contractor liens on real property under AZ law.
a form of mechanics lien related to fair trade laws and the UCC rules.
i placed a lien on a land parcel under development because the owner reneged on his contract obligation to pay me the final amount due.

to start the process i had to have a 20 day prelim notice on file within 20 days of having started the job (AZ law) - which i did as part of routine docs prep when signing agreements.

i later "filed" the formal lien and claim against the owner and land, after he became a DEADBEAT.:mad:
i then "sued" to foreclose on the lien which totally peed off his lender who had a 1st postition deed of trust over the land as a function of his interim construction loans.

i won the suit because he was forced to settle and pay me plus my atty's fees en toto! had he not have paid the bank would have had to pay me or i might have taken the project at a fraction of its worth. in essence the bank forced his hand to protect their position.

that scenario might not relate to your issues but in my case collection turned out to be easy. oh... and the shady developer has since gone bankrupt and is being chased by a lot of VERY teed off people who are in the habit of doing not so nice things to people who cross them!!:lol:
if i was him i'd turn myself in and beg for police protection.:O




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[*] posted on 12-7-2008 at 02:07 PM
Problem solver!!!!!!


Jaime Palafox Toscano!!!!!! He is an abogado and has helped me. No nonsense, if you care to meet him contact me and I will make the call. He is in Ensenada and has a reputation for getting folks attention, as needed.
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thebajarunner
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[*] posted on 12-7-2008 at 06:04 PM


Mike
You are smarter than most California contractors.
The lien law is very specific,
and most contractors manage to screw up the works somewhere in the process.

Jaime Palafox???
We raced SCORE and NORRA with Jaime in the good old days,
Same guy, I presume?
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[*] posted on 12-10-2008 at 02:05 PM


Although you got a judgment, you need to ask them for the money before you file a lien or ask the Sheriff to go get it for you. If they have a business office, the Sheriff will go right in and tap the till. If either are salaried, you can garnish their wages. Depending on their response to your request for the judgment sum, you might be able to work out a payment schedule. If all looks dismal, you could negotiate a settlement for less than the judgment.
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[*] posted on 1-7-2009 at 12:08 PM


Sorry, for the delay in response. We did receive 100% of what was owed. They were one day late in the agreed upon payment date but they called two days prior to let me know it would be the case.

Who really knows why people act and perform as we do. I can tell you that after the court judgement was handed down I met immediately afterwards and made it clear that I would show zero tolerance should I have to go after them to collect the money (I used some very specific 'unprofessional' words). My wife tells me I was too threatening....but she too was as happy as I was when the deposited check cleared without issue.

We will be returning to Mexico in a few weeks to execute phase 2 of this issue with the leasing agent/company. We learned through disclosure as part of the hearing that these folks were a big part of the problem and now that I have a fresh budget to spend on making life hard on them.....I will.

Out of 30 years of real estate deals (buy, sell, lease, rent....etc) in Mexico this is only the second time we have had issue. The first was with another 'member' of this board on who represents himself as a realitor in La Paz who screwed us out of a piece of property that we had a contract on. The funny part is he probably believes he got away with it.....




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[*] posted on 1-7-2009 at 12:34 PM


He got away with it unless you want to pursue it in Australia.:smug::smug:



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[*] posted on 1-7-2009 at 06:53 PM


I can only hope we are talking about the same piece of slime Comitan and the wonderful residents of La Paz are rid of him....but, I repeat, it matters not where he went....Mexico utilizes 'leans and holds' that act much like judgements here in the states....except at times they are located/executed without prior awareness.

[Edited on 1-8-2009 by tim40]




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BajaNuts
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[*] posted on 1-7-2009 at 09:59 PM


We're very happy to hear you are victorious in phase 1!

It's good to hear that people who have been mucked about can get some recourse.

Feliz Ano Nuevo!
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